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HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  72 

Editort: 

HERBERT   FISHER,  M.A.,  F.B.A. 
PROP.  GILBERT   MURRAY,  LiTT.D., 

LL.D.,   F.B.A. 

PROF.  J.  ARTHUR   THOMSON,  M.A. 
PROP.  WILLIAM    T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


A  complete  classified  list  of  the  volumes  of  THE 
HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY  already  published 
will  be  found  at  the  back  of  this  book. 


GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 


BY 
CHARLES   TOWER 


NEW   YORK 
HENRY    HOLT   AND    COMPANY 

LONDON 
WILLIAMS   AND   NORGATE 


X 


o 
h 


CONTENTS 
"» 

%  CHAPTER  PACE 

I    INTRODUCTION         .        .        .        ,        .          7 

^V"     II    KAISER,    BUNDESRATH,    REICHSTAG,    AND 

STATE-PARLIAMENTS  ....        25 

HI    THE       EXECUTIVE,      CHANCELLOR      AND 

BUREAUCRACY,  POLICE,  LAW  COURTS        47 

V  IV  THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  EMPIRE  :  THE  ARMED 
FORCES,  IMPERIAL  FINANCE,  SOCIAL 
INSURANCE,  AND  THE  COLONIES  .  .  69 

V    BETWEEN  THE  STATE  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL. 

THE  MUNICIPALITIES  AND  THEIR  WORK      100 

GERMAN  EDUCATION         ....  129 

*~     VII    THE  ORGANISATION  OF  INDUSTRY      .        .  160 

VIII    AGRICULTURAL  GERMANY          .        .        .  183 

IX    CASTES  AND  CLASSES         ....  207- 

X    INTELLECTUAL  LIFE          ....  230 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 254 

INDEX 255 


GERMANY    OF    TO-DAY 


CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTION 

IF  the  future  of  the  German  Empire  lies,  as 
the  German  Emperor  maintained,  upon  the 
water,  it  would  seem  to  be  at  least  as  certain 
that  the  past  history  of  that  part  of  Central 
Europe  now  included  in  the  Empire  has  been 
largely  influenced  and  in  part  perhaps  deter- 
mined by  water :  not  indeed  by  the  water  of 
the  Baltic  or  the  North  Sea,  but  by  the  water 
of  the  rivers,  which  now,  as  of  old,  are  the 
natural  and  cheapest  means  of  transport,  and 
at  times  have  also  formed  natural  divisions. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  recall  such  catchwords 
and  phrases  as,  "  there  must  be  no  line  of  the 
Main"  (that  is  to  say,  the  particularist  orl 
separatist  tendencies  of  North  and  South 
Germany  must  be  made  to  disappear),  or 
"the  Junkers  East  of  Elbe"  (that  is,  the 
land-owning  and  ultra-conservative  squires  of 
Eastern  Prussia),  or  "  the  line  of  the  Lippe  " 
(which  forms  an  almost  complete  division 
between  the  seats  of  the  poorer  Evangelical 
7 


8  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

and  wealthy  Catholic  landlords  and  nobles 
of  Westphalia),  to  see  that  even  to-day  rivers 
play  a  great  part  not  only  in  the  unity  of  the 
-  Empire  but  also  in  its  internal  divisions  and 
dissensions. 

The  Germans,  their  ambitions,  achieve- 
ments, methods,  men  and  manners  are  so  con- 
tinuously the  topic  of  private  conversation  and 
public  debate  in  English-speaking  countries, 
that  sometimes  there  is  a  tendency  to  forget 
the  outlines  of  the  map  of  the  Germany  of 
to-day.  In  fact,  "  you  forget  the  map  "  is 
apt  to  be  one  of  the  complaints  made  by 
German  newspaper-writers  and  even  German 
statesmen  when  defending  German  military 
budgets  against  the  charge  of  Jingoism. 
So  it  is  well  to  begin  with  the  map. 

Modern  Germany  consists,  geographically, 
of  a  territory  drained  by  the  four  rivers,  Rhine, 
\Vej5er,Elbe,  and  Oder,_  flowing  northwards, 
together  ^ilh  a  so  irtKerrf  section  drained,  it  is 
true,  by  rivers  flowing  in  the  other  direction, 
but  finding  its  commercial  connection  north- 
wards for  political  reasons.  In  the  development 
of  the  modern  Empire  out  of  the  mere  con- 
geries of  petty  States,  formed  in  part  by  water- 
shed divisions,  it  was  geographically  natural 
that  the  northern  States  should  be  the  first  to 
combine  and  it  was  also  natural  that  a  struggle 
should  take  place  before  the  southern  portion 
of  the  Empire,  south  of  the  Main,  broke  loose 


INTRODUCTION  9 

from  fts  geographically  more  natural  con- 
nection with  Austria  and  found  its  outlet 
northwards-X  Hence  one  might  expect  to 
find  sharply  defined  contrasts  between  the 
portions  of  the  Empire  north  and  south  of 
the  Main,  and  it  becomes  easy  to  bear  in 
mind  the  fact  that  all  German  development 
has  been  and  still  is  profoundly  modified  by  the 
contrast,  for  example,  between  the  Bavarian 
and  Prussian  character  and  their  political, 
religious  and  economic  tendencies.  Even  to 
the  present  day  there  is  probably  too  little 
mutual  give-and-take  between  North  and 
South  Germany :  there  is  still  a  clearly  de- 
fined "  line  of  the  Main." 

Leaving  out  of  account  for  the  moment 
certain  accretions,  such  as  Alsace-Lorraine, 
Schleswig-Holstein,  and  Prussian  Poland, 
there  is  yet  another  marked  division  whereof 
politically  too  little  notice  is  sometimes  taken, 
the  division  marked  roughly  by  the  course  of 
the  Oder, -to  the  west  of  which  lies  the  indus- 
trial region  of  Northern  Germany,  to  the  east 
the  agricultural  section.  Quite  frequently 
discussions  in  England  regarding  "  Germany  " 
appear  in  reality  to  be  discussions  only  about 
Prussia,  and  even  about  one  part  of  Prussia, 
the  old  monarchy  east  of  the  Oder.  It  is 
possible  that  some  of  the  antipathy  sometimes 
displayed  is  felt  instinctively  not  for  the 
German  Empire,  but  the  old  Prussian  nucleus, 


10  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

whose  character,  manner  of  thought,  and  even 
political  aspirations  are  to  quite  a  consider- 
able extent  determined  by  geographical  and 
geological  conditions. 

West  of  the  Oder  is  Industrial  Germany, 
east  of  it  Agricultural.  Westphalia,  the  Rhine- 
land,  the  valley  of  the  Weser,  these  are  the 
districts  which  developed  Germany's  foreign 
trade,  and  for  whose  protection  in  their 
infancy  the  high  tariff-wall  was  partly 
destined:  these  are  the  countries  interested 
in  the  "  open  door,"  in  the  maintenance  of 
the  best  possible  commercial  relations  with  all 
foreign  countries,  and  therefore  also  in  the 
maintenance  of  good  political  relations 
throughout  the  world.  It  is  after  the  traveller 
from  London  to  Berlin  has  passed  the  Porta 
Westphalica,  that  picturesque  gap  in  the  semi- 
circle of  the  Teutoburg  hills,  that  he  enters  the 
long  and  dreary  stretch  of  flat  country,  which, 
at  first  pleasantly  pastoral,  interspersed  with 
red-roofed  villages,  and  sometimes  timbered 
farmhouses,  gradually  merges  in  the  pine- 
forests  and  sand-dunes  of  Brandenburg,  the 
ungenerous  soil  from  which  the  East  Prussians 
gather  a  hard  living.  It  is,  perhaps,  not 
too  much  to  say  that  the  predominance  of 
Prussia  in  the  partnership  of  which  the 
Empire  consists  has  been  brought  about 
precisely  by  the  difference  of  soil  and  climate 
here  intimated.  In  East  Prussia,  for  example, 


11 

nearly  one-quarter  of  all  the  land  is  naturally 
unproductive  sand,  fifty-two  per  cent,  is  sand 
with  a  greater  or  less  admixture  of  loam, 
and  only  sixteen  per  cent,  is  good  loam. 
In  the  province  of  Brandenburg  nearly  half 
(42  per  cent.)  is  sand  and  only  ten  per  cent, 
loam.  Hannover  has  41  per  cent,  sand,  West 
Prussia  40  per  cent.,  Pomerania  35  per  cent., 
and  so  forth.  On  the  other  hand  Westphalia 
has  60  per  cent,  good  loam,  Hesse-Nassau 
63  per  cent.,  and  the  Rhineland  67  per  cent. 
These  figures  are  perhaps  more  strikingly 
characteristic  than  any  amount  of  descrip- 
tion. 

The  north-eastern  part  of  Prussia  knows 
conditions  of  climate,  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold,  almost  as  great  as  those  of  Central 
Russia.  The  farmer  has  no  rich  black  soil 
to  deal  with,  but  largely  sand  ;  timber  worth 
the  cutting  must  be  grown  carefully ;  the 
husbandman  cannot  eat  such  things  as 
"  grow  of  themselves,"  and  he  grows  hard  as") 
his  labour,  ungenerous  as  the  soil,  stubborn  r 
as  the  effort  which  wins  him  his  livelihood.^ 
But  he  also  grows  strong  and  wiry.  The 
descent  of  a  hardy  mountain  or  steppe-folk 
into  a  soft*  country  of  luxuriant  natural 
conditions,  easy  subsistence,  and  abundant 
reward  of  light  labour  has  almost  always  in 
history  been  followed  by  a  slackening  of  the 
national  muscles,  a  dimming  of  the  national 


12  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

keenness  of  vision,  and  presently  a  relaxation 
of  the  national  vigilance.  That  Prussia  is 
to-day  the  predominant  partner  in  the  federa- 
tion of  States  called  the  German  Empire 
may  well  be  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  she 
has  always  had  the  hardest  task  to  subsist 
at  all. 

This,  however,  is  the  next  point  to  which 
we  must  turn.  The  German  Empire  is 
neither  the  successor  of  the  old  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  nor  is  it  itself  a  unity.  It  is  a 
federation,  a  close  political  coalition  for 
certain  purposes,  chief  of  which  is  that  of 
defence^  Bavaria,  Saxony,  and  Wiirttemberg 
are  independent  kingdoms,  Baden,  Saxe- 
Coburg,  Saxe- Weimar,  Saxe-Altenburg,  the 
Mecklenburgs,  are  independent  Grand- 
Duchies,  the  two  Reusses  are  independent 
Principalities — with  their  own  legislatures, 
their  own  constitutions,  and  in  the  case  of 
Bavaria  and  Saxony  their  own  State  railways, 
in  the  case  of  Bavaria  alone  her  own  coinage 
and  postage-stamps.  They  levy  taxes  and 
excise  independently  both  of  Prussia  and  of 
the  Empire,  they  maintain  diplomatic  repre- 
sentatives at  each  others'  Courts,  and  expect 
foreign  countries  to  be  independently  re- 
presented at  their  Courts.  But  they  combine 
for  the  purposes  of  national  defence,  and  thus 
possess  an  imperial,  that  is,  a  federal  army; 
they  are  comprised  within  one  imperial 


INTRODUCTION  13 

Tariff-Union  (the  Zoll-verein),  they  con- 
tribute through  their  individual  exchequers 
to  an  Imperial  Treasury  conducted  for 
imperial  purposes,  and  they  recognise  as 
visible  symbol  of  this  federation,  a  federal 
chief,  the  German  Emperor,  who  is  also  King 
of  Prussia. 

The  formation  of  the  Zoll-verein  or  Customs 
Union  was  facilitated  by  the  very  differences  of 
soil,  climate,  and  natural  resources  which  we 
have  already  noted.  The  west,  rich  in 
minerals,  needed  the  assistance  of  the  agricul- 
tural east ;  the  little  Duchies  and  States  by 
the  head-waters  of  the  rivers  needed  unre- 
stricted access  to  the  sea  along  the  water-ways, 
and  the  gradually  developing  industries  needed 
an  unchallenged  market  in  the  districts 
which  are  not  industrial.  The  combination, 
which  was  not  possessed  by  individuals,  was 
possessed  by  all  together.  But  there  was, 
at  the  time,  a  still  weightier  reason  why  the 
various  German  kingdoms  and  principalities 
should  combine  in  the  form  of  a  federation, 
however  much  their  mutual  antipathies  and 
jealousies  might  and  did  stand  in  the  way. 
This  reason  was  that  the  individual  States 
had  for  centuries  been  the  cockpit  of  European 
wars,  the  victims  first  of  this  conquering  army, 
then  of  that,  the  prize  of  victories  in  which 
they  had  no  share,  and  the  goal  of  ambitions 
in  which  they  had  no  interest.  The  necessity 


14  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

for  the  foundation  of  the  present  Federal 
German  Empire  lay  much  less  in  the  bickerings 
and  quarrels  of  the  individual  States  now 
included  in  the  Federation  than  in  the 
quarrels  and  ambitions  of  the  neighbouring 
powers,  the  ambitions  and  rivalries  of  foreign 
princes  and  of  foreign  representatives  of 
various  creeds.  Perhaps  the  most  illuminating 
illustration  of  the  conditions  of  life  in  the 
German  country  which  ultimately  made  the 
Empire  a  necessity  is  to  be  found  in  a  book 
called  "  Simplicius  Simplicissimus,"  retailing 
the  adventures  of  a  farmer's  son  in  the 
period  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  recently 
published  in  English.  The  castles  of  western 
Germany  have  for  the  most  part  been  blown 
up  or  burned,  not  by  the  troops  of  opposing 
political  factions,  Roundhead  or  Cavalier, 
White  Rose  or  Red,  but  by  foreign  aggressors, 
who  ravaged  Germany  from  the  Rhine  to  the 
Vistula^from  the  Baltic  to  the  Giant  moun- 
tains. /That  they  might  live  at  last  in  peace, 
might  aevelop  their  own  resources  by  mutual 
assistance,  the  States  of  modern  Germany, 
led  by  iron-handed  Prussia,  came  to  found  the 
modern  Empire. 

It  is  thus  geographically  clear  that  the 
new  German  Empire  might  be  expected  to 
develop  first  out  of  a  confederation  of  the 
States  north  of  the  line  of  the  Main.  Politi- 
cally this  must  involve  a  dispute  between  a 


INTRODUCTION  15 

northern  and  the  chief  southern  Germanic 
State  for  the  hegemony,  in  other  words,  be- 
tween Prussia  and  the  old  hegemon  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  Austria.  Such  a  dispute 
involved  the  break-up  of  the  loose  alliance 
which  had  subsisted  since  the  formal  end  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  in  1806.  It  follows 
that,  although  actually  the  present  Empire 
has  been  gradually  developed  since  1806, 
there  is  a  complete  break  of  continuity 
marked  by  the  foundation  of  the  North  \ 
German  Confederation,  the  nucleus  of  the 
present  Empire,  by  a  majority  vote  of  the 
delegates  on  April  16,  1867.  It  came  into 
force  on  July  1  in  the  same  year,  which 
is  therefore  the  birthday  of  the  North  German 
Confederation,  and  in  reality  of  its  later 
extension,  the  German  Empire.  What  had 
happened  is  most  briefly  expressed  in  the 
words  of  the  Treaty  of  Prague  after  the  short 
campaign  between  Prussia  and  Austria : 
"  His  Majesty  the  Austrian  Emperor  hereby 
recognizes  the  dissolution  of  the  existing 
confederacy  of  German  States  and  will  not 
oppose  a  new  formation  in  which  Austria 
shall  have  no  part.  Furthermore,  the 
Emperor  will  recognize  the  closer  federation 
which  the  King  of  Prussia  shall  establish 
north  of  the  Main  .  .  .  and  will  admit 
of  the  formation  of  a  federation  of  the  States 
south  of  the  Main ;  the  relations  of  the 


16  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

southern  federation  to  the  northern  bund 
to  be  regulated  later  by  mutual  agreements 
between  them." 

The  northern  federation  consisted  of 
twenty-two  States,  all  the  States  north  of 
the  Main  except  the  Kingdoms  of  Hanover 
and  Saxony,  and  the  Duchies  of  Kur-Hesse, 
Hesse-Darmstadt,  and  Luxemburg. 

Subsequently  the  two  Mecklenburgs,  and 
Hesse,  so  far  as  it  lay  north  of  the  Main  (note 
the  sharp  river  division),  the  elder  Reuss, 
Saxe-Meiningen,  and  the  Kingdom  of  Saxony 
came  into  the  Bund,  raising  the  number  of 
States  subscribing  to  the  terms  of  April, 
1867,  to  twenty-two.  The  next  step  was  to 
bring  the  northern  bund  into  relations  with 
the  States  south  of  the  Main.  The  southern 
confederation  provided,  for  in  the  Peace  of 
Prague  was  never  formed,  but  even  before  the 
formal  publication  of  the  terms  of  the  northern 
confederation,  Prussia  had  made  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance  with  the  southern 
States,  providing  for  the  placing  of  all  the 
forces  under  the  command  of  the  King  of 
Prussia  in  the  event  of  war,  and  also  providing 
that  all  forces  should  be  trained  on  the 
Prussian  model,  thus  ensuring  uniformity.  A 
military  federation  was  thus  virtually  in 
existence ,  before  even  the  North  German 
confederation  had  been  definitely  announced, 
and  that  early  military  federation  is  in  a 


INTRODUCTION  17 

closer  form  the  basis  of  the  present  German 
army. 

We  next  turn  to  the  commercial  federation, 
the  other  great  binding  link  in  the  Empire. 
A  German  customs  union  had  been  formed 
as  early  as  1833,  and  it  still  existed  in  1866. 
In  July,  1867,  the  North  German  confedera- 
tion made  a  fresh  tariff  agreement  with  the 
southern  States,  to  run  for  twelve  years,  and 
the  affairs  of  the  tariff  were  regulated  by  a 
Bundesrath  or  Federal  Council  and  a  Tariff 
Diet.  The  Council  consisted  of  the  Federal 
Council  of  the  North  German  Bund,  together 
with  South  German  representatives,  and  the 
Diet  or  Tariff  Parliament  consisted  of  the  Diet 
of  the  northern  bund  together  with  eighty- 
five  members  elected  by  the  south  German 
States  on  the  basis  of  manhood  suffrage  in  a 
secret  ballot.  The  Tariff  Council  was  prac- 
tically identical  with  the  present  supreme 
Federal  Council  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
combined  Tariff  Parliament  paved  the  way 
for  the  Parliament  of  the  Empire  or  Reichstag. 
It  needed  only  an  external  impulse  to  develop 
these  special  agreements  between  north  and 
south  into  a  definite  agreement  or  complete 
federation.  The  northern  bund  provided  for 
this  future  development  by  the  terms  of  its 
constitution.  Article  79  provided  that  "  the 
entry  of  the  south  German  States  or  any  one 
of  them  into  the  federation  may  ensue  upon 

B 


18  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

the  proposal  of  the  presidency  of  the  federation 
and  in  the  form  of  federal  legislation." 

The  agreement  for  united  action  in  the 
event  of  war  was  soon  put  to  the  test.  The 
outbreak  of  the  war  with  France  brought 
the  northern  and  southern  troops  into  the 
field  side  by  side  as  had  been  agreed,  and  the 
successful  conclusion  of  the  war  made  the 
closer  union  of  the  States  not  only  rational 
Vbut  inevitable.  )  The  southern  States  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  an  international  rela- 
tionship was  no  longer  sufficient ;  a  national 
relationship  must  succeed  it.  The  Kingdom 
of  Bavaria  notified  the  presidency  of  the 
northern  bund  in  September,  1870,  that  it 
did  not  consider  the  international  agreement 
any  longer  sufficient,  and  "  thus  it  happened 
that  in  the  latter  half  of  October  representa- 
tives of  all  the  south  German  States  assembled 
,  in  Versailles  to  discuss  the  foundation  of  a 
German  Federation  "  (speech  of  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Federation,  before  the  Reichstag, 
December  5th,  1870).  It  is  worth  while  to 
note  that,  in  this  report  of  the  proceedings 
given  to  the  Reichstag  on  December  5th, 
1870,  the  minister  (Delbriick)  uses  the  word 
federation  (bund)  to  describe  the  new  relation- 
ship of  all  the  German  States  to  each  other. 
The  line  of  the  Main,  created  politically 
by  the  formation  of  the  North  German  Bund 
in  1866,  disappeared  politically  by  the  entry 


INTRODUCTION  19 

of  the  south  German  States  into  the  northern 
bund  in  1870.  There  were  three  treaties 
made :  first,  an  agreement  between  the 
northern  bund,  Baden  and  Hesse,  whereby  a 
German  bund  was  formed  and  its  constitution 
agreed  to.  In  the  second  agreement  the 
northern  bund,  with  Baden  and  Hesse,  made 
an  agreement  with  Wiirttemberg,  and  in  the 
third  they  made  an  agreement  with  Bavaria. 
Bavaria  obtained  a  number  of  special  privi- 
leges, which  will  be  detailed  later,  and  which 
are  called  the  Bavarian  "  Sonderrechte." 
The  treatises  were  in  form  entries  of  the 
various  States  into  the  northern  bund  on 
condition  of  certain  alterations  of  the  federal 
constitution.  It  should  be  noted,  too,  that 
they  were  not  agreements  of  all  the  German 
States  severally,  but  agreements  between  the 
northern  bund  as  a  political  unit  and  the 
southern  States  severally.  The  new  bund, 
which  was  even  formally  only  an  extension 
of  the  old  northern  bund,  was  given  a  new 
title,  the  German  Empire  (not  the  Empire 
of  Germany),  and  the  president,  who  con- 
tinued to  be  the  King  of  Prussia,  was  also 
given  a  new  title,  namely  German  Emperor 
(not  Emperor  of  Germany).  /^ 

Such  in  brief  was  the  development  OY  fche 
Empire  out  of  the  close  coalition  of  the  north- 
ern States.  The  Empire  remains  what  it 
was,  a  federation  of  States  which  guard,  some 


20  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

of  them  with  very  great  jealousy,  the  smallest 
remaining  item  of  their  independence,  and 
which  also  watch  jealously  any  suggestion  of 
accretion  of  power  to  any  one  of  them  such 
as  might  disturb  the  balance  between  them. 
Besides  the  strictly  German  parts  of  the 
Empire,  there  are  certain  non-German  ele- 
ments which  constitute  "  problems."  Prussia 
is  chiefly  troubled  by  her  Polish  provinces, 
acquired  at  the  time  of  the  division  of  Poland 
in  1795,  and  to  some  small  extent  by  the 
problem  of  the  Danish  strip  acquired  by  her 
victory  over  Austria.  The  third  problem 
was  that  of  the  territory  ceded  by  France 
after  the  war  of  1870.  The  Alsace-Lorraine 
territory  was  acquired  by  the  victories  of 
all  the  German  States.  It  was,  therefore, 
vested  as  a  proprietory  district  in  the  new 
bund,  and  became  Reichsland,  Imperial 
territory.  Recently  the  question  of  arranging 
the  final  relationship  of  the  Reichsland  to  the 
Empire  became  acute,  and  there  was  not 
wanting  a  demand  that  it  should  in  some 
way  be  more  closely  attached  to  Prussia  than 
heretofore.  The  other  States  would  have 
raised  an  exceedingly  vehement  protest  had 
the  proposal  actually  reached  maturity,  but 
finally  the  Reichsland  was  given  a  constitution 
with  an  electoral  assembly  and  a  second 
chamber.  Its  nominal  head  is  a  viceroy,  who 
represents  the  rights  of  the  original  federal 


INTRODUCTION  21 

States,  but  it  has  been  made  a  member  of  the 
federation  with  a  voice  in  federal  discussions 
and  agreements  and  a  seat  in  the  Bundesrath, 
or  Federal  Council. 

Thus  the  Empire  now  consists  of  twenty-six 
States,  twenty-two  being  monarchical,  three 
being  republican  city-States,  and  one  a  semi- 
independent  Viceroyalty.  That  is  the  sim- 
plest formula  for  expressing  the  nature  of  the 
federation  which  is  called  the  German  Empire. 
It  may  be  as  well  to  enumerate  these  States. 
They  are :  Prussia,  Bavaria,  Saxony, 
Wiirttemberg  (kingdoms),  Baden,  Hesse, 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 
Oldenburg,  Brunswick,  Saxe-Meiningen, 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,  Saxe-Altenburg,  Anhalt, 
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt,  Schwarzburg-Son- 
derhausen,  Waldeck,  Reuss  (elder  and  younger 
lines),  Schaumburg-Lippe,  Lippe  (the  last 
seven  principalities,  the  others  duchies  or 
grand-duchies),  Liibeck,  Bremen  and  Hamburg 
(republican  city-states),  and  the  viceroyalty 
of  Alsace-Lorraine.  In  a  further  chapter 
we  shall  see  how  these  States  differ  in  their 
forms  of  government  and  in  their  relations 
to  the  Imperial  Federation  and  the  Federal 
Government.  For  the  present  it  is  desirable 
to  note  that  certain  of  the  old  political 
divisions  have  disappeared.  Prussia,  for  in- 
stance, has  swallowed  amongst  other  once 
independent  units  the  old  Kingdom  of  Han- 


22  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

nover,  which  is  now  the  Prussian  Province 
of  Hanover  ;  a  portion  of  the  former  Kingdom 
of  Saxony,  the  swallowed  portion  being  now 
the  Prussian  Province  of  Saxony  ;  Frankfurt, 
which  is  now  a  Prussian  city  instead  of  being 
an  independent  city-state  like  Hamburg 
arid  Bremen ;  and  so  forth.  Inasmuch  as 
Prussia  also  includes  now  Westphalia,  the 
Rhineland  as  far  as  Frankfurt,  and  the  Eiffel 
uplands  west  of  the  Rhine,  it  is  by  far  the 
largest  partner  in  the  federation,  and  stretches 
"  across  the  map  "  from  the  Belgian  to  the 
Russian  frontiers.  Oldenburg,  the  Mecklen- 
burgs,  and  the  republican  city-states  break 
its  coast-line,  and  the  small  Duchies  intervene 
in  part  between  Prussia  and  the  old  dividing- 
line  of  north  and  south,  whilst  it  is  also  broken 
up  by  occasional  excrescences  like  the  Princi- 
palities of  Lippe  and  the  Schwarzburgs.  It 
should  be  added  that  the  tendency  is  for  these 
little  Principalities,  whilst  retaining  their 
individual  ducal  or  princely  families,  to 
combine  for  purposes  of  internal  revenue 
and  administration,  and  also,  as  recently 
in  the  case  of  the  Schwarzburgs,  for  represen- 
tation in  the  Federal  Council.  But  there  is 
no  tendency  to  relinquish  any  kind  of  privilege 
to  Prussia. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  map  of  the  small 
central  German  or  Thuringian  States  shows 
curiosities  comparable  only  to  the  map  of 


INTRODUCTION  28 

Scotland.  The  Duchy  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 
for  example,  is  not  even  territorially  united  : 
the  Gotha  part  of  it  is  separated  by  a  fragment 
of  Saxe-Weimar  territory,  and  a  big  strip  of 
Saxe-Meiningen  from  its  Coburg  section. 
There  are  eleven  different  sections  of  Saxe- 
Weimar-Eisenach  scattered  all  over  the  map 
of  the  Thuringian  States,  and  even  the  two 
parts  of  the  little  Principality  of  Reuss 
Elder  Line  are  some  fifteen  miles  apart. 
Sondershausen,  the  northern  part  of  Schwarz- 
burg-Sondershausen,  is  at  its  extreme  southern 
limit  twenty-five  miles  as  the  crow  flies  from 
the  extreme  northern  limit  of  its  middle 
part  at  Arnstadt,  which  is  again  separated 
by  a  bit  of  Gotha  and  a  trifle  of  Rudolstadt 
territory  from  its  southern  part  at  Gehren. 
A  glance  at  a  good  coloured  map  of  the  Thur- 
ingian States,  Dr.  Lange's,  for  example, 
is  itself  sufficient  to  show  the  difficulties 
involved  hi  the  self-government  of  such  com- 
plicated territories,  so  long  as  there  was  no 
adequate  central  authority  and  no  common 
protection.  Even  County  Councils  might 
find  it  difficult  to  carry  on  their  work  with 
one  bit  of  the  county  at  Brighton,  another 
tiny  section  in  the  middle  of  Surrey,  and  a 
third  round  Salisbury.  Development,  one 
might  suppose,  was  only  possible  when  some 
central  authority  had  provided  norms  or 
general  lines  of  procedure  for  the  principal 


24  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

functions  of  self-government,  and  had  further 
removed  difficulties  of  inter-State  communi- 
cation by  road  and  rail.  That  is  what  was 
achieved  partly  by  Prussia  and  later  by  the 
Empire. 


CHAPTER   II 

KAISER,    BUNDESRATH,   REICHSTAG,   AND 
STATE-PARLIAMENTS 

ALTHOUGH  historically  it  is  no  doubt  true 
that  the  foundation  of  the  new  German 
Empire  was  an  act  of  all  the  people,  or  nearly 
all  the  people,  included  within  the  Empire, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  constitutional 
law  the  foundation  might  be  described  rather 
as  the  act  of  the  several  States  into  which 
these  people  were  divided.  The  individual 
States  existed  previous  to  the  foundation, 
and  their  existence  was  not  ended  by  it. 
This  distinction  is  clearly  shown  in  the 
Constitution.  There  is  the  federal  body 
called  the  Bundesrath,  representing  the  States 
severally,  and  the  Parliament  of  the  Empire 
or  Reichstag,  representing  all  the  people 
collectively. 

The  Bundesrath  is  not  a  debating  body, 
nor  is  it  a  second  chamber  :  its  members  are 
delegates  appointed  by  the  various  States, 
and  they  vote  not  according  to  their  individual 
judgment  or  according  to  party  orders,  but 
20 


26  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

according  to  instructions  received  from  the 
governments  of  the  States  they  represent, 
and  they  do  not  vote  on  any  single  proposal 
without  definite  instructions  on  that  particular 
proposal.  In  the  Bundesrath  Prussia  has 
seventeen  votes,  corresponding  to  the  four 
votes  she  possessed  in  the  council  of  the  North- 
German  Federation  plus  the  votes  belonging 
originally  to  Hanover,  Kur-Hesse,  Holstein, 
Nassau  and  Frankfurt,  which  were  incorpor- 
ated into  Prussia.  Bavaria  has  sax,  votes, 
the  kingdoms  of  Saxony  and  Wiirttemberg 
four  each,  Baden  and  Hesse  three  each, 
Mecklenburg-Schwerin  and  Brunswick  two 
each,  and  the  rest  of  the  States  one  each. 
It  is  clear  that  since  the  plural  votes  are 
not  distinct  but  merely  represent  the  pro- 
portionate weight  to  be  attached  to  the 
opinion  of  the  particular  State  represented, 
the  representatives  of  each  State  must  vote 
"  solid.." 

The  Reichstag  or  Parliament  of  the  Empire, 
is,  on  the  other  hand,  the  representative  and 
debating  body  of  all  the  German  people, 
without  distinction  of  district  or  State. 
It  is  the  body  representing  the  Empire, 
no  longer  in  its  federal  aspect  but  in  its 
unified  aspect  as  one  Empire  and  one  people. 
Hence  every  German  possessing  the  franchise, 
that  is  every  male  German  who  has  passed 
his  twenty-fifth  birthday,  and  is  not  dis- 


KAISER   AND    PARLIAMENTS      27 

qualified  under  the  provisions  of  the  penal 
code  or  under  the  laws  governing  bankruptcy, 
or  by  the  receipt  within  the  twelve  months 
preceding  the  election  of  assistance  under 
the  poor-laws,  is  entitled  to  vote  not  merely 
in  the  State  to  which  he  belongs,  but  in 
whatever  State  he  has  his  residence  at  the 
time  of  the  election.  Similarly  every  male 
German  who  has  passed  his  twenty-fifth 
year  is  eligible  to  membership  of  the  Reich- 
stag, provided  he  has  the  qualifications  for 
the  franchise.  He  need  not  be  elected  from 
the  State  to  which  he  belongs,  but  he  must 
have  been  a  citizen  of  the  Empire  for  at 
least  a  year,  and  must  be  a  resident  of  the 
State  from  which  he  is  elected.  Military 
persons  may  not  vote  so  long  as  they  are 
actually  with  the  colours  :  the  right  to  vote 
is  considered  in  their  case  to  be  temporarily 
in  abeyance,  but  it  is  clear  that,  unlike 
prisoners  or  persons  judicially  sentenced 
to  temporary  loss  of  the  franchise,  their 
qualifications  for  the  franchise  still  exist, 
and  therefore  they  are  eligible  as  members 
of  the  Reichstag.  The  reason  why  military 
persons  and  men  on  active  naval  service 
may  not  exercise  their  vote  is  evident :  it  is 
considered  impossible  to  reconcile  freedom 
of  choice  in  balloting  with  the  restraint 
on  individual  freedom  required  by  military 
organisation. 


28  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Originally  the  Reichstag  was  intended  to 
contain  one  member  for  every  100,000  of  the 
population,  each  State  sending  as  many 
members  as  it  contained  multiples  of  100,000, 
and  one  extra  for  any  remaining  fraction  of 
100,000  exceeding  50,000.  Lauenburg,  with 
less  than  100,000  inhabitants,  nevertheless 
had  one  representative.  In  practice  this 
theory  of  representation  has  long  since 
vanished.  The  present  Reichstag  should  have 
about  600  members  instead  of  897  on  the 
numerical  basis,  and  the  representation  of 
the  towns  should  have  been  nearly  doubled. 
For  instance,  Berlin,  with  over  2,000,000 
inhabitants,  still  has  only  six  members,  whilst 
the  agricultural  districts  are  in  part  over- 
represented  even  on  the  original  numerical 
basis.  The  Government  is,  however,  loth  to 
introduce  a  redistribution  bill,  because  any 
equitable  distribution  must  diminish  the 
proportionate  strength  of  those  parties  or 
sections  upon  which  the  Government  can 
usually  reckon  for  the  passing  of  "  national  " 
bills. 

The  Reichstag  possesses  no  control  over 
the  administration  or  the  executive  except  in 
so  far  as  it  can  refuse  to  grant  supplies. 
Bills  brought  before  it  have  to  be  passed  first 
by  the  Federal  council,  and  after  alteration  by 
the  Reichstag  are  again  subject  to  the  veto 
of  the  Council.  Hence  its  actual  legislative 


KAISER   AND    PARLIAMENTS     29 

power  is  hardly  as  great  even  as  that  of 
the  House  of  Lords  before  the  passage  of 
the  Parliament  Act.  Its  composition  does  not 
necessarily  determine  the  character  of  the 
policy  of  the  Government ;  an  adverse  vote 
does  not  turn  the  Government  out,  though  it 
may  involve  a  dissolution.  A  second  adverse 
vote  after  a  dissolution  would,  however, 
doubtless  result  in  the  resignation  of  the 
Chancellor  concerned,  though  the  Chancellor 
might  decide  again  to  proceed  to  dissolution. 
Since,  therefore,  the  Reichstag  is  neither 
itself  a  governing  body  nor  has  any  real  power 
to  call  the  Government  to  account,  and  since 
the  imperial  officials  are  neither  legally  nor 
practically  responsible  to  it,  it  has  never 
developed  a  true  party-character.  Member- 
ship of  the  Reichstag  is  scarcely  a  social  asset, 
and  it  does  not  appeal  to  talent.  It  is  even 
claimed  that  the  introduction  of  the  system 
of  payment  of  members  some  years  ago  has 
rather  decreased  its  reputation  than  otherwise. 
Moreover,  since  the  source  of  all  concessions  is 
a  permanent  Government,  that  Government 
invariably  seeks  a  temporary  majority  by 
granting  concessions  to  different  sects. 

In  the  main  the  Government  must  thus  be 
permanently  agrarian,  as  it  is  in  Prussia,  or  at 
least  Conservative,  because  its  own  existence 
and  character  is  essentially  non-Liberal  and 
anti-democratic,  and  it  cannot  proceed  far  in 


80  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

the  granting  of  concessions  to  liberalism. 
Hence  German  Liberalism  (regarded  as  in- 
cluding Radicalism)  is  either  driven  to  an 
extreme,  when  it  becomes  as  negative  as 
Socialism,  or  it  tends  to  toady  to  the  Govern- 
ment in  the  hope  of  small  concessions.  Its 
reputation  is  thus  at  a  very  low  ebb.  Of  the 
chief  parties  in  the  House  the  Socialist  is  now 
the  strongest,  not  because  it  represents 
an  overwhelming  acceptance  by  four  million 
voters  of  Socialist  principles,  but  because 
it  is  the  only  party  which  adequately 
represents  democratic  opposition.  It  is  the 
representative  of  the  opposition  to  permanent 
bureaucratic  institutions.  The  Freisinnige  or 
Radical  groups  stand  about  half-way  between 
the  Socialists  and  the  so-called  National 
Liberals,  who  in  turn  represent  for  the  most 
part  industrial  and  commercial  capital  and 
interests,  as  against  the  privileged  Conserva- 
tive class  on  the  one  hand,  and  Labour  on  the 
other.  The  word  "  Liberal  "  in  their  title  is 
virtually  a  misnomer.  The  Centre  party,  the 
second  strongest  in  the  House,  is  the  represen- 
tative of  the  Catholic  population.  Next  to 
the  Socialist  it  is  the  best  organised,  but 
politically  it  is  not  a  constant  factor.  It 
cannot  be  described  as  Liberal,  because  its 
strength  is  based  largely  on  a  reactionary  view 
of  life,  but  it  is  also  not  necessarily  Conserva- 
tive, because  its  vote  on  a  reactionary  proposal 


KAISER   AND   PARLIAMENTS     31 

may  be  determined  by  consideration  for  the 
demands  of  a  section  of  its  supporters  which 
is  opposed  to  agrarian  and  Conservative 
privileges.  Since,  however,  as  has  been  said, 
the  Government  is  the  source  of  privileges 
and  concessions,  the  Centre  can  usually  be 
persuaded  to  support  Government  bills  in 
return  for  concessions  to  its  confessional 
interests.  The  General  Election  of  1913  left 
the  strength  of  the  parties  as  follows  :  Social- 
ists, 110  ;  Centre,  99  ;  Conservatives,  56  ; 
National  Liberals,  46  ;  Radicals,  43  ;  Poles, 
18 ;  Reichspartei  (usually  voting  with  Con- 
servatives), 15  ;  Independents,  etc.,  10. 

Having  thus  sketched  the  character  of 
the  Bundesrath  and  the  Reichstag,  represent- 
ing the  Empire  in  its  two  aspects,  it  remains 
to  see  what  are  the  limits  of  the  authority 
and  powers  of  the  two  bodies.  When  the 
northern  States  formed  the  original  bund 
they  surrendered  individually  some  portion 
of  their  absolute  independence  or  rights  of 
sovereignty  in  order  to  exercise  them  col- 
lectivety.  They  did  not  surrender  all,  but  they 
did  permit  Prussia  to  exercise  a  dominant 
though  not  an  absolutely  major  influence  in 
the  exercise  of  the  part  surrendered.  The 
same  principle  prevailed  when  the  empire  was 
developed  out  of  the  bund  :  that  portion  of 
the  sovereign  rights  of  the  northern  States 
formally  exercised  by  the  northern  bund  was 


32  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

transferred  to  the  enlarged  bund  and  the 
southern  States  performed  the  same  act  of 
surrender  which  had  been  originally  performed 
by  the  northern  States.  In  return  they 
received  a  portion  of  the  collected  sovereignty 
of  the  whole.  Primarily,  as  was  seen  in  the 
first  chapter,  matters  of  war  and  commerce 
as  far  as  foreign  countries  are  concerned,  were 
the  fields  for  the  exercise  of  this  new  collective 
sovereignty,  but  the  scope  was  extended  inas- 
much as  the  new  bund  was  no  international 
agreement,  but  a  national  union.  It  may  be 
best  to  summarise  the  matters  which  actually 
come  under  the  imperial  control : — 

(1)  Questions  of  citizenship  of  the  Empire  : 
treatment,     surveillance    and    expulsion    of 
foreigners  ;    colonization  and  emigration  ;  in- 
crease and,  of  course,  also  decrease  of  territory 
within  the  Empire. 

(2)  Legislation   regarding   customs   duties, 
taxes  to  be  applied  for  imperial  purposes, 
regulations    of    coinage    and    weights    and 
measures,  banking  regulations,  especially  the 
issue  of  paper  money,  stock  exchange  trans- 
actions, etc. 

(3)  Patents,  inventions,  the  protection  of 
the  products  of  intellectual  activity. 

(4)  Protection  of  German  trade  abroad  and 
on  the  high   seas,   hence  also  the  consular 
service. 

(5)  Means    of    communication :     railways, 


KAISER    AND    PARLIAMENTS      88 

roads,  waterways,  posts  and  telegraphs  (with 
certain  exceptions  in  the  case  of  postage 
and  railways,  and  in  the  case  of  roads  and 
waterways  where  the  interests  of  common 
defence  are  not  concerned,  or  where  such  roads 
and  waterways  are  not  means  of  communica- 
tion between  States,  but  only  within  one 
State). 

(6)  Legislation  unifying  civil  and  criminal 
law  and  legal  procedure,  and  enforcing  the 
mutual  execution  of  judgments. 

(7)  Authentication    of    public    documents, 
regulations  for  the  press  within  certain  limits, 
and  of  the  right  of  assembly,  regulation  of 
certain  departments  of  health,  and  veterinary 
matters. 

(8)  Army  and  navy. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  one  of  the  chief 
features  of  modern  life,  education,  does  not 
fall  within  the  competence  of  the  Empire, 
but  is  left  to  the  individual  States.  In  the 
chapter  on  education  it  will  be  seen,  however, 
that  uniformity  is  nevertheless  to  a  large 
extent  achieved  within  the  Empire.  But 
the  relations  of  Church  and  State  are  not 
touched  by  imperial  legislation.  Also  each 
State  is  left  to  make  its  own  Budget  for  its 
own  purposes,  and  it  is  also  left  to  collect 
in  its  own  way  that  portion  of  the  imperial 
revenues  which  has  to  be  subscribed  by  each 
State  in  addition  to  the  imperial  revenue 
o 


84  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

derived  from  imperial  taxation  and  customs. 
Domestic  agricultural  questions,  so  far  as 
they  are  not  included  within  the  imperial 
veterinary  or  protective  regulations,  are  also 
left  to  the  individual  States  :  mining  and 
forestry,  fishing  and  shooting,  police  regula- 
tions concerning  building  and  prevention  of 
fire,  and  also  the  regulations  whereby  the 
general  police  agreements  are  actually  exe- 
cuted. Moreover,  even  in  the  criminal  and 
civil  law,  though  the  Empire  decides  the 
principles  the  State  executes  them.  Judg- 
ments are  rendered  and  executed  not  in  the 
name  of  the  Empire,  but  in  the  name  of  the 
State.  Even  customs  duties,  imperial  taxes, 
and  so  forth  are  collected  not  by  officials  of 
the  Empire,  but  by  officials  of  the  State  or 
States  concerned,  acting  on  behalf  of  £he 
Empire. 

It  is  important  to  remember  that  these 
features  of  State  as  opposed  to  Federal  control 
are  not  prerogatives  ceded  by  the  Empire  to 
the  individual  States  in  the  way  of  decentrali- 
sation, but  are  part  of  the  old,  completely  in- 
dependent sovereignty  retained  by  the  States. 
The  tendency  of  modern  Germany  is  emphati- 
cally not  towards  decentralisation,  but  the 
reverse  ;  and  the  centralising  tendency  would 
be  more  evident  and  swifter  in  development  if 
it  were  not  for  the  fear  that  the  whole  country 
might  be  conformed  to  the  peculiar,  and  in 


KAISER   AND   PARLIAMENTS      85 

some  respects,  too  harsh  characteristics  of  one 
State — Prussia.  This  is  a  matter  to  which  it 
will  be  necessary  to  recur.  In  plain  language 
Germany  is  not  an  Empire  which  has  conceded 
"  Home  Rule  all  round  "  to  its  individual 
parts. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  certain 
States  retain  certain  special  privileges,  and 
this  may  be  a  convenient  point  to  sketch  them. 
Bavaria  retains  the  right  to  print  her  own 
postage  stamps,  and  to  mint  her  own  coinage, 
though  the  reverse  of  Bavarian  coins,  showing 
the  imperial  eagle,  makes  them  current,  of 
course,  everywhere  in  the  Empire.  On  the 
other  hand,  only  Bavarian  stamps  may  be  used 
in  Bavaria,  and  they  may  not  be  used  through- 
out the  rest  of  the  Empire.  Wiirttemberg  sur- 
rendered a  similar  privilege  quite  recently. 
Baden  and  Bavaria  reserve  the  right  to  tax 
domestic  beers  and  brandies,  and  the  latter 
reserves  certain  rights  affecting  domicile, 
and  the  railroads  within  her  frontiers  ;  certain 
insurance  laws  may  only  be  passed  with  the 
consent  of  Bavaria,  and  there  are  Bavarian 
military  privileges  which  may  be  noted  in  the 
chapter  dealing  with  the  army. 

On  the  other  hand  Prussia  also  has  certain 
privileges,  which  have  now  to  be  considered  in 
connection  with  the  position  and  attributes 
of  the  Kaiser. 

In  the  old  North-German  bund  there  was  a 


86  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

function  called  the  Presidency  (Bundes- 
Praesidium)  and  another  called  the  Bundes- 
Feldherr  or  Military  Over-Lord,  commonly 
translated  "  War-Lord. "  The  president  of 
the  bund  or  chief  magistrate  of  the  federation 
could  summon  and  open,  adjourn  or  dissolve, 
the  federal  Parliament,  and  could  appoint 
and  dismiss  the  federal  Chancellor  and 
federal  officials,  could  declare  war  and  make 
peace.  The  War-Lord  had  supreme  command 
of  the  federal  forces  by  land  and  sea  in  times 
of  peace  and  of  war,  he  determined  the 
strength  of  the  army  and  navy,  ordered  new 
fortifications,  could  declare  a  state  of  siege  in 
any  part  of  the  federal  dominions,  and  if 
necessary  could  mobilize  the  federal  army 
against  a  recalcitrant  member.  Both  the 
presidency  of  the  bund  and  the  warlordship 
were  occupied  by  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia. 
When  the  bund  was  extended  to  include  the 
southern  States,  the  bundes-praesidium  and 
the  warlordship  were  retained,  but  they  were 
merged  in  one  term  which  included  them  both 
— "  Deutscher  Kaiser,"  the  German  Emperor, 
and  the  title  "  German  Emperor  "  was  made 
the  prerogative  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  Thus 
the  Kaisership  is  the  old  Presidency  of  the 
bund  plus  the  warlordship. 

The  adoption  of  the  title  "  Kaiser "  did 
not  create  a  new  federal  institution,  nor 
did  it  revive  the  old  institution  of  the  Holy 


KAISER   AND    PARLIAMENTS     87 

Roman  Empire,  though  the  tendency  of  the 
present  holder  of  the  title  has,  doubtless,  been 
to  regard  himself  as  the  successor  of  the  old 
Emperors,  holding  his  title  and  prerogatives 
"  Dei  gratia "  rather  than  by  decision  of  the 
individual  States  ;  still  less  did  the  possession 
of  the  title  by  the  King  of  Prussia  imply  that 
he  was  in  any  sense  the  superior  of  the 
monarchs  of  the  other  Kingdoms  and  Duchies. 
The  special  title  chosen  was,  indeed,  as  Bis- 
marck says  (Reflections,  chapter  23),  intended 
to  "  constitute  an  element  making  for  unity 
and  centralization,"  but  it  was  also  actually 
intended  to  assist  the  wearer  of  that  title  in 
repressing  an  inclination,  "  dangerous,  but  a 
vital  feature  of  the  old  German  history,  to 
inculcate  upon  the  other  dynasties  the  superi- 
ority of  the  Prussian  dynasty."  The  first 
Emperor  was  in  Bismarck's  opinion  much  too 
prone  to  emphasize  what  he  calls  the  superior 
respectability  of  the  hereditary  Prussian 
crown.  The  matter  can  be  put  most  simply 
in  this  way.  The  Kaiser  is  not  even  in  theory 
possessor  of  the  Empire  as  any  one  of  the 
German  Kings  or  Dukes  is  in  feudal  theory 
possessor  of  the  country  over  which  he  holds 
sway.  The  German  colonies  are  not  the 
"  dominions  of  the  Kaiser  overseas  "  :  he 
can  neither  add  to  them  nor  surrender  them 
even  in  theory  without  leave  of  the  Federal 
Council  and  of  the  Reichstag.  The  King  of 


" 


4115 


88  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

England  can  talk  of  "my  dominions  over- 
seas," the  Kaiser  cannot.  Moreover,  the 
Kaiser  as  such  receives  no  income  from  the 
treasury  of  the  Empire.  There  is  no  imperial 
civil  list,  and  the  revenues  of  the  Kaiser  are 
either  the  possessions  of  the  royal  house 
or  those  bestowed  upon  him  by  Prussia 
alone  in  his  capacity  of  King  of  Prussia) 
The  only  form  of  subsidy  is  the  "  Disposition 
Fund,"  a  comparatively  small  sum  voted 
annually  with  the  imperial  budget.  Moreover, 
the  Kaiser  as  such  can  neither  initiate  legis- 
lation nor  veto  it.  He  formally  endorses 
bills  and  may  send  them  back  if  they  are  in 
form  defective,  but  he  cannot  veto  them 
because  he  considers  them  bad  legislation. 

But  almost  all  these  legislative  functions 
lacking  to  him  as  Kaiser,  he  does  actually 
^possess  as  King  of  Prussia,  because  he  controls 
the  seventeen  Prussian  votes  in  the  Bundes- 
rath,  and  any  State  represented  in  the  Bundes- 
rath  can  initiate  legislation.  •  Moreover,  the 
[aiser  appoints  and  dismisses  the  Imperial 
Chancellor,  who  is  president  of  the  Bundesrath, 
and  in  effect  the  only  responsible  minister. 
Hence  the  actual  director  of  policy  in  the 
Empire  is  only  under  the  control  of  the 
Kaiser,  and  is  only  responsible  to  him. 
Again,  the  Kaiser  is  supposed  to  supervise 
the  proper  carrying  out  of  imperial  legislation, 
but  he  has  no  civil  force  at  his  command  to 


KAISER   AND    PARLIAMENTS     89 

punish  or  re-adjust  omissions  ;  he  can  only 
refer  the  matter  to  the  Bundesrath,  leaving 
that  body  to  take  action  if  it  pleases.  Judi- 
cially the  Kaiser  has  the  rijorht  of  pardon  only 
in  matters  adjudged  by  the  imperial  court, 
whose  judges  he  appoints  ;  that  is  to  say, 
he  has  the  right  of  pardon  only  in  cases  of 
treason  against  the  Empire  or  against  his 
own  person  :  in  the  States  outside  Prussia 
the  Kings  or  Dukes  have  the  sovereign's 
right  of  pardon  except  in  cases  of  high  treason. 
As  Warlord  the  Kaiser  has  much  more  nearly 
monarchical  powers.  His  power  to  declare 
war  of  his  own  accord  is,  however,  limited 
to  cases  in  which  German  soil  is  invaded, 
though  as  he  is  the  sole  determiner  of  what 
constitutes  invasion  the  limitation  does  not 
perhaps  go  for  much.  But  whilst  the  Kaiser 
is  thus  strictly  limited  in  his  functions  and 
privileges  in  all  German  States  other  than 
Prussia,  he  takes  a  different  character  directly 
the  relations  of  Germany  to  foreign  powers 
are  concerned.  Here  the  Kaiser,  according 
to  the  wording  of  the  constitution,  "  represents 
the  Empire,  is  to  make  treaties  and  other 
agreements  with  foreign  powers  in  the  name 
of  the  Empire,  and  to  accredit  and  receive 
ambassadors."  (It  will  be  noticed  that  he 
does  so  in  the  name  of  the  Empire,  not  in  his 
own  name.  The  Sovereignty  still  rests  with 
the  Bundesrath,  not  with  the  Kaiser.) 


40  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

It  has  been  necessary  to  attempt  to  define 
the  limitations  of  the  Kaiser's  power  in  this 
way  because,  otherwise,  it  would  not  be 
possible  to  explain  the  repeated  demands  on 
the  part  of  Reichstag  that  the  Kaiser  shall 
restrain  himself  in  one  direction  or  another. 
It  is  fairly  obvious  that  questions  of  com- 
petence must  frequently  arise  in  the  relations 
between  the  Imperial  Parliament  and  the 
Parliaments  of  the  various  States.  Roughly 
speaking,  it  is  true  that  where  the  Imperial 
Parliament  has  not  legislated  the  individual 
States  are  competent :  hence  arise  the  con- 
stant efforts  of  Liberals  in  the  Imperial 
Reichstag  to  extend  the  limits  of  imperial 
legislation  so  as  to  remove  competence  from 
individual  States  governed,  as  is  Prussia, 
under  less  liberal  constitutions.  The  regu- 
lation of  hours  of  labour,  regulations  affecting 
the  health  of  home-workers,  the  expropriation 
of  Polish  proprietors  in  Prussian  Poland, 
and  many  other  domestic  questions  can  and 
do  periodically  give  rise  to  the  question  of 
competence,  but  Prussia  jealously  guards 
herself  against  any  interference  which  she 
can  avoid.  Recently  there  arose  in  the 
Reichstag  the  question  whether  the  Empire 
could  require  all  the  individual  States  to 
introduce  the  imperial  franchise,  that  is  the 
direct  manhood  vote  by  secret  ballot  with 
one  value  to  all  votes.  The  Conservatives 


KAISER   AND   PARLIAMENTS     41 

declared,  without  question  correctly,  that  the 
Empire  could  not  interfere  in  this  sense : 
the  National-Liberals  stated  that  the  Empire 
could  demand  that  every  State  within  the 
Empire  could  be  required  to  possess  an 
electoral  representation  whose  consent  should 
be  required  for  all  State  legislation,  and  for 
the  passing  of  the  budget,  but  the  Empire 
could  not  lay  down  the  exact  character  which 
such  electoral  representation  should  take. 

The  Centre  have  several  times  declared 
that  harmony  of  constitutional  institutions 
is  a  necessity  of  the  public  life  of  the  Empire, 
but  that  it  can  only  be  produced  or  initiated 
by  the  Empire  if  the  States  constituting  the 
Empire  elect  to  enlarge  the  imperial  privilege 
so  as  to  include  the  necessary  interference 
with  the  rights  remaining  to  the  individual 
States.  This  is  an  excellent  illustration  of 
the  debates  which  may  and  do  arise  on  the 
question  of  imperial  and  State  competence ; 
and  this  may  be  a  convenient  point  at  which 
to  glance  at  the  constitutional  conditions 
actually  prevailing  in  the  individual  States. 

In  Prussia,  the  largest  State,  conditions 
are  still  but  little  removed  from  feudalism. 
The  so-called  popular  house  of  the  Prussian 
Parliament  is  elected  on  the  "  three-class 
system."  The  total  of  the  State  tax  paid 
in  each  electoral  constituency  is  divided 
into  three  portions,  and  the  voters,  all  males 


42  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

who  have  reached  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
are  also  divided  into  three  classes.  The  first 
class  consists  of  the  heaviest  taxpayers,  whose 
payments  total  one-third  of  the  whole  sum 
for  the  constituency  ;  the  second  class  consists 
of  the  next  heaviest  payers,  again  totalling 
a  third ;  and  the  third  class  consists  of  the 
poor  or  lowest  taxpayers.  Each  of  these 
three  divisions  elects  a  certain  number  of 
intermediate  electors.  These  intermediate 
electors,  or  "  Wahlmanner,"  must  number  one 
for  every  250  inhabitants,  and  they  in  turn 
elect  the  members  of  the  lower  house.  The 
absurdity  of  designating  a  house  so  elected 
a  "  representative  house  "  is  sufficiently  clear, 
and  Bismarck  himself  described  the  Prussian 
system  as  the  "  wretchedest  of  all  systems." 
The  first  class  may  consist  of  a  hundred 
primary  electors,  but  they  have  just  as  much 
influence  over  the  final  choice  of  representative 
as  the  third  class,  which  usually  numbers 
at  least  twenty  to  twenty-five  times  as  many. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  first  and  second 
class  usually  vote  the  same  "  ticket,"  it  is 
evident  that  the  third  class  is  in  an  absolute 
minority  of  one  to  two.  There  are  electoral 
districts  in  Berlin  where  one  man  in  his 
constituency  constitutes  the  first  class,  and 
elects  two  members  of  the  electoral  college  : 
in  the  second  class  there  may  be  forty  voters, 
also  electing  two  Wahlmanner,  and  in  the 


KAISER   AND    PARLIAMENTS      43 

third  class  several  hundred.  In  recent  news- 
paper discussions  it  was  asserted  that  in  two 
adjoining  districts  of  Eastern  Berlin,  in  one 
district  one  taxpayer,  with  an  annual  income- 
tax  of  over  £2,000,  constituted  the  first  class 
by  himself ;  whilst  in  the  adjoining  (very 
poor)  district  ten  men,  paying  roughly  £5 
apiece,  also  constituted  a  first  class.  But  if 
the  rich  taxpayer  had  lived  one  mile  west- 
wards, in  the  wealthy  Thiergarten  quarter,  he 
would  have  been  compelled  to  vote  in  the 
third  division — like  the  Imperial  Chancellor, 
Herr  von  Bethmann  Hollweg ! 

The  actual  figures  in  recent  elections  show 
that  the  first  class  of  voters,  electing  one 
third  of  the  Wahlmanner,  consists  of  about 
200,000  voters  ;  the  second  class  of  about 
900,000,  and  the  third  class  of  over  6,000,000  ! 

It  is  against  this  wholly  illiberal  system  that 
the  Prussian  Socialists  are  constantly  protest- 
ing, and  the  growing  opposition  to  it  has 
become  strong  enough  to  compel  the  Govern- 
ment to  introduce  a  promise  of  reform  into 
the  speech  from  the  throne.  The  new  electoral 
scheme  recently  brought  before  the  Houses 
as  a  result  of  this  promise  failed  to  pass, 
and  the  Government  has  not  since  then 
introduced  any  other  Bill.  If  the  Lower 
House  of  the  Prussian  Diet  is  thus  completely 
controlled  by  the  rich  classes  the  Upper 
House,  or  House  o!  Peers,  is  in  reality  no 


44  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

less  reactionary.  The  members  are  either 
hereditary  legislators,  or  they  are  appointed  by 
the  King  of  Prussia  as  life  members,  or  they 
are  ex-officio  members  through  tenure  of  high 
Government  appointments.  The  agricultural 
districts  of  Prussia  have  about  two-thirds 
of  the  total  representation  in  the  House  of 
Peers  and  more  than  half  the  representation 
in  the  Lower  House,  although  on  the  basis 
of  population  the  proportion  should  be  almost 
exactly  the  opposite.  It  follows  that  the 
Prussian  Parliament  is  necessarily  devoted 
to  the  agrarian  interests,  and  tends  sadly  to 
neglect  the  just  claims  of  the  23,000,000 
Prussians  who  constitute  the  industrial  popu- 
lation. Mecklenburg  is  almost  the  only 
country  which  is  even  worse  off  than  Prussia, 
for  it  retains  the  strictly  feudal  arrangements 
of  1523  as  modified  in  1755.  At  the  time  of 
writing  the  adoption  of  a  representative 
Parliament  is  still  under  bitter  discussion. 
Saxony  modified  its  feudal  system  in  1909  by 
adopting  direct  manhood  suffrage,  and  the 
secret  ballot,  but  incomes  of  over  £80  per 
annum  entitle  the  possessor  to  two  votes, 
£110  to  three  votes,  and  certain  standards 
of  education,  certain  professions,  and  incomes 
of  more  than  £140  give  four  votes.  The 
election  of  members  takes  place  directly. 
To  take  an  illustration  of  a  liberal  constitution 
it  may  be  added  that  Baden,  the  "  model 


KAISER   AND    PARLIAMENTS     45 

duchy,"  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  has  direct 
manhood  suffrage  by  secret  ballot  and  "  one 
man,  one  vote." 

It  is  natural  that  the  landlords,  the  feudal 
aristocracy,  and  the  wealthy  classes  should 
cling  to  their  advantageous  position  by  every 
means  in  their  power,  and  wherever  possible, 
but  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  far-reach- 
ing changes  must  come  in  the  near  future. 
At  present  the  suggestion  seems  to  be  that 
a  compromise  should  be  found  between  the 
Reichstag  electoral  system  and  the  Saxon 
system,  whereby  the  Reichstag  system  would 
be  modified  slightly  in  favour  of  "  brains, 
caste,  and  money,"  whilst  in  Prussia  and 
elsewhere  the  direct  secret  ballot  would  be 
introduced,  but  the  two  upper  classes  of  the 
present  system  would  receive  two  or  more 
votes. 

The  basis  of  the  reactionary  system  in 
Germany  does  not,  however,  consist  of  any 
theory  that  birth,  money,  or  even  education 
warrant  the  possession  of  a  more  powerful 
voice  in  the  election  of  legislators ;  there 
appears  to  be  no  subtle  suggestion  that  a 
stake  in  the  country,  the  possession  of  brains 
or  fortune  or  position  make  an  elector  better 
able  to  judge  what  he  wants  or  what  is  good 
for  himself  and  his  country  ;  it  is  simply  that 
the  current  of  ideas  both  in  the  Empire  and 
in  most  of  the  States  is  from  the  top  down- 


46  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

wards,  not  from  the  bottom  upwards.  Legis- 
lation derives  primarily  from  the  permanent 
Government,  not  from  the  representatives 
of  the  people,  hence  a  strengthening  of  popular 
representation  is  almost  meaningless  in  a 
country  where  public  officials  are  not  in  any 
true  sense  the  servants  of  the  public. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   EXECUTIVE  ;    CHANCELLOR,   AND 
BUREAUCRACY  ;  POLICE  ;  LAW  COURTS 

IN  the  previous  chapter  it  was  pointed  out 
that  although  the  Reichstag  may  and  does 
alter  laws  presented  by  the  Government  for 
its  approval,  the  whole  method  of  its  working 
prevents  it  from  being  a  law-giving  assembly. 
The  controlling  factor  remains  the  Bundesrath, 
which  votes  upon  a  law  before  it  goes  to  the 
Reichstag,  and  may  refuse  its  assent  when  the 
Reichstag  has  modified  it.  Thus  the  function 
of  the  Reichstag  to  a  great  extent  is  that  of  a 
body  which  does  indeed  possess  a  veto,  but 
does  not  possess  an  actual  initiative.  If  a 
Bill  presented  by  the  Government  does  not 
meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Reichstag, 
the  Government  can  simply  disregard  the 
matter  altogether,  and  proceed  with  the  next 
item  in  its  programme.  Neither  the  Chan- 
cellor nor  the  Bundesrath  can  be  made 
accountable,  nor  can  the  Reichstag  compel 
the  Government  to  introduce  bills  suggested 
by  the  representative  house.  The  essential 
47 


48  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

4 

point  is  that  the  flow  of  legislative  ideas 
comes  from  permanent  authorities  to  the 
people,  and  if  at  times  a  popular  demand  for 
some  particular  modification  of  existing  laws 
or  for  the  creation  of  new  makes  itself  felt, 
this  occurs  despite  the  legislative  machinery, 
and  not  through  it. 

The  same  feature  prevails  in  the  executive. 
The  Bundesrath,  which  has  first  to  be  con- 
sulted as  to  the  desirability  of  any  law,  also 
includes  the  machinery  for  its  execution. 
The  Empire  itself  does  not,  on  the  whole, 
provide  the  machinery,  but  leaves  the  execu- 
tive to  the  individual  States,  and  although 
the  Kaiser  is  legally  supposed  to  supervise 
such  execution,  yet  he  has  virtually  no 
machinery  at  his  command  for  carrying  out 
such  supervision.  He  can  refer  cases  of 
obstinate  refusal  to  execute  a  law  to  the 
Bundesrath,  and  in  the  last  instance  can 
mobilize  the  Federal  army  against  a  recal- 
citrant State,  but  he  does  not  actually 
control  the  departments  and  sub-departments 
responsible  for  the  work.  On  the  other 
hand,  neither  the  Reichstag  nor  any  popular 
representative  body  in  any  State  can  control 
the  appointment  of  executive  officers. 

It  is  so  much  the  custom  to  talk  of  Germany 
as  a  bureaucratic  country,  and  therefore  of 
the  German  bureaucracy,  that  the  impression 
sometimes  seems  to  prevail  that  the  whole 


THE    EXECUTIVE  49 

Empire  is  administered  by  a  hierarchy  of 
functionaries,  all  appointed  by  the  Kaiser, 
and  having  the  Chancellor  at  the  head.  As 
has  been  already  explained,  there  is  no  such 
imperial  bureaucracy,  because  the  internal 
affairs  of  each  State  are  left  to  its  own  manage- 
ment, though  in  many  departments  the  norm 
or  general  rules  of  procedure  are  regulated 
by  laws  of  the  Empire.  There  is  only  one 
imperial  minister,  the  Chancellor,  who  is 
responsible  only  to  the  Kaiser.  All  the  other 
imperial  departments,  Foreign  Affairs, 
Colonies,  Post  Office,  Finance,  etc.,  are 
technically  departments  of  the  Chancellery, 
for  the  Imperial  Chancellor  has  subordinates 
but  no  colleagues.  The  navy  is,  of  course, 
exclusively  imperial  in  its  nature,  that  is  to 
say,  there  are  no  State  contingents  as  in  the 
army,  and  obviously  there  could  not  be. 
Therefore  there  is  an  imperial  Admiralty,  and 
this  too  is  technically  a  department  of  the 
Chancellery.  But  there  is  no  imperial  War 
Office.  Each  of  the  States  possessing  a  mili- 
tary contingent,  namely,  Prussia,  Bavaria, 
Saxony  and  Wurttemberg,  has  a  war-ministry 
responsible  for  the  administration  of  its  own 
contingent  according  to  the  norm  laid  down 
in  the  articles  of  federation. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  clear  that  the  vast 
charge  thus  laid  upon  the  Chancellor  involves 
also  an  army  of  subordinates  in  their  various 


50  GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

degrees,  and  it  is,  of  course,  true  that  certain 
departments  of  the  Chancellery  tend  more  and 
more  to  achieve  a  certain  independence,  just 
because  no  one  man  can  be  omniscient  enough 
or  has  time  enough  to  exercise  a  real  super- 
vision and  directorate  of  all  the  imperial 
departments.  Under  the  present  Chancellor, 
Herr  von  Bethmann  Hollweg,  the  Foreign 
Office  has  acquired  a  remarkable  degree  of 
independence,  though  its  ability  to  exercise  it 
is,  of  course,  limited  by  the  fact  that  finally  the 
policy  to  be  carried  out  is  on  its  broad  lines 
the  policy  of  the  Emperor.  But  this  imperial 
bureaucracy  does  not  extend  to  the  domestic 
and  local  administration  in  the  various  States  : 
nor  indeed  are  the  methods  of  local  administra- 
tion the  same  in  all  States,  inasmuch  as  the 
Empire  has  only  laid  down  norms  for  some 
spheres  of  human  activity,  such  as  litigation. 
There  is,  however,  a  uniform  civil  right  for  all 
Germans  contained  in  the  remarkable 
Biirgerliche  Gesetzbuch,  and  against  breaches 
of  this,  that  is,  against  any  circumscription  of 
individual  liberty,  such  as  is  forbidden  by  the 
Biirgerliche  Gesetzbuch,  there  is  ultimately 
an  appeal  beyond  the  State  to  the  Empire 
through  the  High  Court  at  Leipzig.  But  the 
appeal  to  the  Empire  Is  not  always  effective, 
because,  as  already  stated,  there  is  often  a 
conflict  of  opinion  as  to  where  the  rights 
confirmed  to  all  citizens  of  the  Empire  by 


THE    EXECUTIVE  51 

the  imperial  laws  are  infringed  by  action  of  the 
States. 

An  illustration  from  practice  will  make  this 
clear.  Article  3  of  the  Imperial  Code  provides 
for  rights  of  domicile,  the  acquisition  of  land, 
and  the  enjoyment  of  civil  rights.  "  No 
German  shall  be  limited  in  the  exercise  of  these 
rights  by  the  authority  of  his  native  State 
or  by  the  authority  of  any  other  State  of  the 
bund."  The  Reichstag  recently  protested 
under  appeal  to  this  clause  against  the  action 
of  the  Prussian  Government  in  exmitting 
Polish  proprietors  under  the  Prussian  coloni- 
zation scheme.  The  imperial  authorities 
refused  to  interfere  on  the  ground  that  the 
imperial  Government  was  not  competent. 
Similarly  the  federal  law  provides  that  no 
German  properly  elected  to  a  representative 
body  in  any  State  or  to  the  representation 
of  the  Empire  shall  be  prevented  from  the 
exercise  of  the  rights  attached  to  his  election. 
Recently  some  Socialist  members  of  the  Lower 
House  of  the  Prussian  Diet  or  parliament 
were  removed  by  the  police,  and  an  appeal 
was  made  against  this  removal  as  contrary 
to  federal  law.  The  imperial  authorities 
again  refused  to  interfere,  and  an  action 
brought  against  the  Prussian  police  failed. 

We  turn  from  the  imperial  bureaucracy  to 
the  domestic  bureaucracy  of  Prussia,  which, 
it  would  appear,  j§  what  is  usually  meant 


52  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

when  people  refer  loosely  to  the  "  German 
bureaucracy."  In  the  year  1808  Baron  von 
Stein,  the  great  Prussian  administrator,  vir- 
tually abolished  the  old  feudal  system  in 
Prussia,  and  introduced  a  system  of  repcesfinta- 
tion  of  communes,  districts,  and  provinces 
which  might  perhaps  be  easiest  paralleled  as 
parishes,  constituencies,  and  counties.  At  the 
same  time,  in  order  to  centralise  control,  he 
devised  a  system  whereby  the  ultimate  control 
of  each  of  these  representative  and  administra- 
tive bodies  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
Government  authority.  By  degrees  these 
Government  authorities  have  lost  their  local 
attachment,  and  have  become  professional 
members  of  a  home  civil  service,  responsible 
only  to  their  immediate  chief,  and  through  him 
to  the  King  of  Prussia.  Local  government  by 
locally  elected  or  at  any  rate  localised  bodies 
and  authorities  is  thus  restricted  by  the 
superior  authority  of  men  imposed  by  the 
State. 

For  administrative  purposes  Prussia  is 
divided  into  twelve  provinces,  plus  two  major 
administrative  districts,  namely,  Berlin  and 
the  Principality  of  Hohenzollern.  Each 
province  is  governed  by  a  Provincial  President 
responsible  only  to  the  King  and  appointed 
by  him.  The  province  is  subdivided  into  a 
number  of  districts  (Regierungsbezirke),  with 
a  district  president,  who  is  subordinate  to  the 


THE   EXECUTIVE  53 

Provincial  President.  The  districts  are  again 
divided  into  circles,  and  over  each  circle 
(Kreis)  there  is  a  Landrat.  Now  the  Landrat 
personifies  in  Prussia  the  bureaucratic 
officialdom,  for  he  comes  most  closely  into 
contact  with  the  local  bodies,  and  his  influence 
is  most  felt  and  least  admired.  The  province, 
the  district,  and  the  circle  have  each  their 
representative  council,  and  below  the  circle 
comes  the  commonalty,  parish  or  urban 
district  (Gemeinde),  which  is  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  essential  organ  of  self-government. 
The  Geminderat  is  either  one  person,  a 
Burgomaster  or  a  Dorf  schulze,  whose  appoint- 
ment is  usually  for  three  or  more  years,  and 
requires  Government  confirmation,  or  there 
exists  in  larger  parishes  and  commonalties 
a  collegiate  body  deciding  by  majority  vote. 
The  population  is  represented  by  an 
electoral  body,  which  is  generally  so  elected 
that  property  qualifications  obtain  a  dis- 
proportionate, if  not  actually  a  decisive  voice. 
Local  taxation  and  local  government  are 
nominally  in  the  hands  of  these  local  Parlia- 
ments, with  their  representative  assembly, 
and  second  chamber  or  single  superior 
(Gemeindevorsteher).  But  the  Landrat,  be- 
sides presiding  over  the  meetings  of  the 
representative  body,  has  a  direct  control  of  the 
affairs  of  the  commonalty.  Its  accounts  are 
inspected  by  him,  and  many  of  its  decisions  are 


54  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

subject  to  his  veto.  The  attitude  of  the 
Landrat  to  the  commonalty  officers  was 
recently  epitomized  in  its  crassest  form  by 
a  statement  published  in  the  Berlin  press. 
According  to  this  statement  there  appears 
on  the  door  of  the  residence  of  a  certain 
Landrat  in  East  Prussia  the  notice  "  Burgo- 
masters are  to  use  the  backstairs  !  " 

It  would  carry  us  too  far  to  investigate  here 
the  functions  and  privileges  of  the  Landrathe. 
Their  method  of  appointment  will  be  sketched 
in  the  following  chapter,  under  the  heading 
of  the  professions,  but  it  should  perhaps  be 
made  clear  here  that  the  Landrathe  are  no 
longer,  at  any  rate  in  Prussia,  feudal  ap- 
pointees. Formerly  not  only  the  Landrat 
but  also  the  Dorfschulze,  that  is  mayor  of  a 
country  district,  was  always  the  lord  of  a 
certain  manor,  but  these  hereditary  local 
offices  were  abolished  in  Prussia  in  1872. 

In  no  department  of  imperial  or  State 
machinery  are  the  officials  "  servants  of  the 
public. "  As  a  rule  foreigners  visiting  Germany 
find  the  first  and  most  striking  illustration 
of  this  fact  outwardly  in  the  German  post- 
offices,  where  the  public  is  in  almost  every 
case  cut  off  from  the  officials  by  a  wooden 
screen  with  little  windows  behind  which  the 
officials  sit  to  transact  the  business  of  the 
Empire  or  the  State.  Almost  all  railways  in 
Germany  are  State  railways  or  imperial 


THE   EXECUTIVE  55 

railways,  and  the  railway  authorities  are 
State  or  imperial  authorities.  Even  on 
private  lines,  such  as  the  electric  overhead 
line  in  Berlin,  the  company's  officials  are 
given  an  official  status  by  being  sworn  in  as 
"  railway-police "  and  armed  with  the 
authority  of  traffic  police.  It  is  calculated 
that  there  are  now  approximately  3,000,000 
officials  in  Germany,  or  five  per  cent,  of  the 
population.  In  general  it  cannot  be  said  that 
Germans  feel  the  same  objection  to  this 
bureaucratic  or  paternal  system  of  government 
that  would  be  felt  in  England.  Responsi- 
bility is  removed  from  the  shoulders  of  the 
ordinary  citizen,  and  although  he  is  hedged 
about  with  a  palisade  of  exasperating  regula- 
tions he  is  accustomed  thereto  from  the 
outset,  and  does  not  worry  about  the 
matter. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  this 
official  machinery  is  uniform  throughout 
Germany,  or  that  the  life  of  the  unofficial 
citizen  is  restricted  as  sharply  in  one  district 
as  another.  The  sharp  police  control,  which  is 
such  a  feature  of  Prussia,  is  a  great  deal  more 
lax  in  Baden,  and  so  far  as  foreigners  are 
concerned  is  almost  unnoticeable  in  the 
Rhineland,  and  in  parts  of  Southern  Germany. 
It  may  be  convenient  to  summarize  in  this 
connection  the  features  of  the  chief  executive 
organisation,  the  police.  A  householder 


56  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

moving  from  one  suburb  of  Berlin  to  another 
is  compelled  to  fill  up  two  forms,  one  showing 
the  names,  ages,  birthdays,  birthplace,  con- 
fession, and  business  or  profession  of  himself 
and  all  members  of  his  family  residing  with 
him ;  the  other  giving  the  names  and  other 
details  concerning  his  servants  or  members 
of  his  household  who  are  not  relations.  These 
papers  must  be  signed  by  the  landlord  or 
porter  of  his  flat  and  deposited  with  the  local 
police.  Similar  papers  must  be  filled  up 
and  deposited  with  the  police  within  three 
days  of  his  arrival  in  his  new  home.  He 
will  be  required,  if  a  foreigner,  to  state  how 
long  his  residence  will  be,  and  if  it  is  to  be  for 
more  than  three  months  he  will  presently 
be  instructed  to  appear  at.  a  police-station 
and  produce  his  passport.  The  object  of  this 
close  police  surveillance  is  partly  to  render  the 
tracing  of  crime  easier  but  mainly  it  is  to 
control  army  service.  The  law  governing 
army-service  declares  that  every  male  German 
not  rejected  on  the  score  of  physical  unfitness 
is  liable  to  service  in  the  army  :  the  system  of 
police  supervision  exists  partly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  tracing  every  male  so  liable,  but  also, 
and  this  is  even  more  important,  for  the 
purpose  of  tracing  the  whereabouts  of  every 
trained  reservist  at  any  moment  in  order  that 
orders  to  join  the  colours  may  be  conveyed  to 
him  immediately  upon  the  outbreak  of  war 


THE   EXECUTIVE  57 

or  upon  the  receipt  by  the  local  authorities  of 
the  orders  for  mobilisation. 

In  practice  it  is  extremely  doubtful 
whether  the  supervision  system  is  a  preventa- 
tive  of  crime,  and  it  has  been  shown  in 
numerous  recent  murder  trials  in  Germany 
that  the  system  is  of  little  use  in  tracing  an 
adroit  criminal.  On  the  contrary  the  theft 
of  another  man's  police  papers  and  evidence 
of  identity  has  been  shown  to  be  very  easy, 
and  the  result  to  be  very  confusing.  This  is 
no  doubt  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
country  police  are  very  loth,  even  in  Prussia, 
to  worry  a  good  workman  or  agricultural 
labourer  in  a  district  where  labour  is  badly 
wanted  just  because  he  happens  to  have 
mislaid  his  papers.  It  is  claimed  that  it  is 
quite  as  easy  for  a  clever  criminal  to  escape 
the  police  in  Berlin  as  in  London,  and  news- 
paper evidence  of  recent  years  points  to  much- 
policed  Berlin  being  in  point  of  fact  a  happy 
hunting-ground  for  clever  swindlers  of  all 
sorts.  Special  police  control  almost  every 
department  of  human  activity,  at  any  rate  in 
Prussia,  and  their  powers  are  much  more 
extensive  than  in  England.  "  The  uniform," 
it  has  been  said,  "  is  a  key  to  all  doors." 
No  magistrate's  warrant  is  required  for  the 
intrusion  of  the  uniformed  policeman  in  a 
private  house,  and  the  building  police  in 
particular  are  armed  with  extensive  powers 


58  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

of  investigation.  Recently  in  Berlin  it  was 
thought  that  a  number  of  families  were 
exceeding  the  police  provision  forbidding  the 
use  of  attics  for  sleeping  purposes.  Building 
police  entered  some  of  the  blocks  of  flats, 
ascended  to  the  attics,  and  removed  the  heat- 
ing apparatus  installed  by  the  landlords  ! 

The  ordinary  police,  however,  exercise 
a  sometimes  useful  role  in  the  settlement  of 
disputes.  They  can  be  called  upon  by  mas- 
ters to  interfere  against  insolent  servants 
and  by  servants  to  recover  wages.  In  these 
cases  they  act  as  mediators,  and  frequently 
arrange  a  compromise  without  the  necessity 
of  the  disputants  carrying  the  matter  before 
a  court  of  law.  Although  they  are  almost 
always  recruited  from  the  army,  and  thus 
accustomed  to  exercise  an  abrupt  authority 
inconsistent  in  other  countries  with  the 
freedom  of  civil  life,  they  are  not,  on  the 
whole,  either  a  violent  or  a  discourteous  body 
of  men. 

It  should  be  added  here,  perhaps,  in  defence 
of  the  German  bureaucratic  system,  that 
discourtesy  and  insolence  towards  the  public 
is  the  exception  not  the  rule,  but  the  excep- 
tions are  apt  to  be  more  exasperating  than 
in  other  countries  because  the  victim  is 
completely  powerless.  To  obtain  redress 
against  a  policeman  who  grossly  exceeds  his 
instructions  is  difficult  and  often  impossible, 


THE   EXECUTIVE  59 

whereas  a  mild  remonstrance  may  appear 
in  the  eyes  of  the  official  as  an  insult.  The 
tendency  of  the  police  is  certainly  to  become 
more  autocratic.  It  may  be  enough  to  quote 
such  instructions  as  those  recently  issued 
by  the  police-president  of  Berlin  to  policemen 
interfering  in  a  street  disturbance.  Owing 
to  cases  in  which  policemen  had  been  injured 
by  pistol-shots,  the  police-president  threatened 
that  he  would  punish  any  policeman  who 
failed  to  "  shoot  first." 

As  in  all  other  departments  of  German  life, 
the  police-system,  owing  to  its  elaboration 
and  close  confinement  to  written  instructions, 
has  become  inelastic ;  there  is  very  little 
room  for  individual  intelligence  on  the  part 
of  the  executive,  and  there  is  practically  nx> 
adaptation  to  individual  circumstances.  Over 
all  German  life  stands  the  text  "  Nach  Vor- 
schrift."  Everything  must  be  carried  out 
exactly  according  to  instructions.  That  is 
why,  for  example,  Berlin  street  traffic  strikes 
a  Londoner  as  being  so  badly  managed  and 
so  clumsily  organized.  The  traffic  police 
are  restricted  to  certain  methods  of  control, 
and  the  opening  or  closing  of  a  traffic  route 
is  too  often  dictated  not  by  the  pressure 
of  traffic,  but  by  the  hands  of  a  stop- 
watch. 

It  may  be  useful  to  note  shortly  the  main 
divisions  of  the  Prussia  police-system,  its 


60  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

duties  and  its  functions.  It  should  be 
observed  again  here  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  an  imperial  or  a  German  police- 
system,  though  such  a  system  is  constantly 
advocated.  The  executive  police  are  of  three 
kinds :  first,  the  gendarmerie  or  country- 
police,  a  practically  military  force  organized 
on  army  lines  and  armed  with  carbines  as 
well  as  with  the  usual  revolver  and  sabre 
of  the  town  police.  The  gendarmerie  is 
recruited  as  far  as  possibly  from  time-expired 
army-men,  and  is  controlled  for  the  most  part 
by  the  local  Government  officials,  who  in 
turn  are  organs  of  the  central  administration. 
The  gendarmerie  is  employed  for  country 
districts  and  at  certain  points  of  the  frontiers. 
"The  town  police,  armed  with  revolvers  or 
pistols  and  sabres,  are  of  two  kinds,  State- 
police,  controlled  eventually  by  the  Ministry 
of  Justice,  and  the  communal  police,  controlled 
usually  by  the  civic  authorities,  that  is,  in 
most  cases,  the  Burgomaster.  In  any  case 
the  cost  of  maintenance  falls  not  upon  the 
State  but  upon  the  community.  Almost 
all  large  towns  in  Prussia  now  have  State- 
controlled  police,  Kiel,  and  the  towns  of  the 
west-Prussian  mining  districts  and  of  the 
Reichsland,  having  been  added  to  the  number 
comparatively  recently.  The  tendency,  there- 
fore, is  to  remove  police  control  from  the 
municipalities  on  the  frontiers  and  in  mining 


THE   EXECUTIVE  61 

districts,  where  there  is  usually  a  large  floating 
population  of  foreign  labourers.  The  reason 
for  this  tendency  is  obvious,  and  probably  the 
system  is,  on  the  whole,  beneficial.  It  is 
distinctly  not  beneficial  in  some  cases,  because 
the  police-force  comes  to  be  regarded  as  a  sort 
of  subordinate  military  force,  and  is  divorced 
completely  from  any  touch  with  or  control 
by  the  municipalities,  who  nevertheless  have 
to  find  the  money  for  its  support. 

Hence  arises  the  growing  unpopularity 
of  the  police  in  towns  like  Berlin,  and  the 
increasing  tendency  of  the  general  public 
to  regard  all  police  action  as  suspicious,  and 
therefore  to  take  sides  in  many  cases  against 
the  police  even  when  they  are  very  far  from 
exceeding  their  duties.  The  actual  frontier 
police  and  the  political  police  in  great  towns 
and  in  the  western  industrial  districts  are 
special  groups  divorced  from  the  ordinary 
police  work  and  trained  for  the  special  work 
of  watching  foreigners.  German  States  have 
only  just  begun  to  establish  special  training- 
schools  for  the  police.  There  are  schools 
at  Duesseldorf,  Dortmund,  Recklinghausen, 
and  elsewhere,  and  there  is  or  is  shortly  to  be 
an  academy  for  police  at  Hanover.  The 
search  authority  of  the  police  as  inspectors 
is  constantly  being  enlarged,  so  that  the  little 
manual  regarding  the  police  issued  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public  in  Prussia  declares  that 


62  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

"  there  are  now  very  few  branches  of  business 
exempt  from  police  inspection." 

From  the  police  system  it  is  natural  to 
turn  to  the  administration  of  justice.  Ger- 
many possesses  a  uniform  code  of  civil  and 
criminal  law,  a  uniform  commercial  code,  and 
a  bankruptcy  law.  The  administration  of 
justice  is  regulated  by  federal  laws  which 
deal  with  the  organization  of  the  courts, 
arrange  the  rules  of  procedure,  and  regulate 
also  the  costs  and  the  fees  of  witnesses, 
experts,  lawyers,  and  so  forth.  It  is  impos- 
sible in  the  restricted  space  of  a  chapter  to 
enumerate  the  objections  to  and  points  raised 
in  favour  of  codified  as  against  statute  law. 
It  is  customary  to  complain  that  whereas 
English  law  is  the  slowly  matured  expression 
of  human  experience  in  dealing  with  disputes 
between  the  individual  and  the  community, 
or  between  man  and  man,  German  law  is 
"  the  hastily  produced  product  of  special 
commissions  worked  out  in  innumerable 
paragraphs  and  acting  with  an  iron  inflexibil- 
ity which  almost  eliminates  the  very  idea  of 
equitable  justice."  It  is  clear,  however, 
that  a  codified  law  is  better  adapted  for  public 
comprehension  and  may,  in  many  cases, 
eliminate  a  dangerous  possibility  of  over- 
susceptible  human  sentiment. 

German  legal  processes  are  not,  on  the 
whole,  speedier  than  in  England,  but  the 


THE    EXECUTIVE  63 

costs  of  litigation  are  very  much  smaller  to 
the  litigant.  An  essential  difference,  too, 
lies  in  the  complete  divorce  of  Bench  and  Bar. 
The  same  qualifications  are  required  of  the 
law  student  for  both  branches  of  the  pro- 
fession, but  the  two  branches  are  divorced ; 
the  law  student  may  select  either  the  Bench 
or  the  Bar  ;  he  cannot  attain  the  one  via  the 
other.  Hence  the  Bench  does  not,  as  in 
England,  represent  the  experience  gained  at 
the  Bar ;  it  comes  to  be  regarded  by  the 
barrister  not  with  respect,  but  with  a  feeling 
akin  to  animosity  and  at  times  contempt. 
The  judge  becomes  a  kind  of  glorified  police- 
man or  bureaucrat. 

German  courts  are  of  four  kinds,  Amts- 
gerichte,  Landgerichte,  Oberlandesgerichte, 
and  the  Reichsgericht,  or  Imperial  Court 
of  Final  Appeal.  Only  the  judges  of  the 
Imperial  Court  are  imperial  officials  appointed 
by  the  Kaiser  upon  the  nomination  of  the 
Bundesrath.  The  judges  of  all  other  courts 
are  State  officials,  appointed  by  the  various  ; 
States  according  to  their  own  arrangements. 

The  elementary  court  is  the  Amtsgericht. 
It  consists  of  a  single  judge  with  an  assistant 
called  a  Referendar,  who  is  really  an  unpaid 
probationer.  It  is  a  court  of  first  instance, 
involving  civil  jurisdiction  in  property  claims 
where  the  value  of  the  claim  does  not  exceed 
£15.  It  also  determines  suits  between  masters 


64  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

and  servants,  tenants  and  subtenants,  hotel 
bills,  transportation  charges,  freightage,  and 
so  forth.  Alimentation  claims  are  also  sub- 
ject to  its  jurisdiction  in  some  cases,  as  well 
as  certain  controversies  in  bankruptcy.  Judges 
of  the  Amtsgericht  are  wont  to  endeavour  to 
establish  a  compromise. 

In  criminal  cases  there  is  erected  in  con- 
nection with  the  Amtsgericht  what  is  called 
a  Schoffengericht  or  small  jury,  consisting 
of  a  judge  of  the  Amtsgericht,  with  two 
laymen  acting  as  jurors.  During  the  trial 
itself  the  jurors  possess  all  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  judge,  and  have  an  equal 
voice  in  all  decisions  which  do  not  relate 
to  the  fixing  of  the  penalty  ;  the  latter  is  left 
entirely  to  the  judge.  All  Germans  between 
thirty  and  sixty-five  are  liable  to  serve 
as  Schoffen  unless  they  have  lived  less  than 
two  years  in  the  commune  or  are  disqualified 
by  loss  of  civil  rights  as  the  result  of  a  judicial 
decision  or  by  the  receipt  of  public  charity, 
etc.  Members  of  Parliament,  certain  State 
officials,  physicians,  officers  of  army  or  navy, 
and  others  are  relieved  of  the  necessity  to  sit 
as  jurors.  A  special  committee,  consisting 
of  Government  officials  and  persons  elected 
locally,  assembles  annually  to  draw  up  the 
list  of  persons  to  serve  as  jurors,  and  service 
is  determined  by  lot  for  the  whole  year.  The 
days  on  which  the  small  juries  are  to  sit  are 


THE    EXECUTIVE  65 

also  determined  in  advance  for  the  whole 
year.  The  fine  for  non-attendance  may  run 
from  5s.  to  £50.  The  competence  of  the 
Schoffengericht  extends  to  all  misdemeanours 
and  petty  offences,  the  penalty  for  which 
does  not  exceed  three  months'  imprisonment 
or  a  fine  of  £30.  Cases  of  theft  or  embezzle- 
ment also  come  before  it  when  the  value  of  the 
property  in  question  does  not  amount  to  more 
than  25s. 

The  appeal  from  the  Amtsgericht  is  to  the 
Landgericht,  a  collegiate  court  consisting  of  a 
president  and  of  associate  judges  not  fewer 
than  two  in  number.  The  actual  number 
is  determined  by  each  State  for  itself.  The 
Landgericht  also  functions  as  a  criminal 
court,  in  which  case  it  must  consist  of  at 
least  five  members,  except  in  cases  of  appeal 
against  conviction  in  the  lower  court  for 
misdemeanours,  when  the  number  may  be 
three  as  in  civil  cases.  Whereas  litigants 
may  appear  before  the  Amtsgericht  without 
legal  assistance  they  must  be  represented 
before  the  Landgericht  by  an  attorney ; 
there  is  in  Germany  no  distinction  between 
the  functions  of  solicitor  and  barrister. 

Attached  to  the  Landgericht  is  one  of  the 
most  useful  institutions  in  Germany,  the 
chamber  for  commercial  matters  (Kammer 
fiir  Handelsachen),  consisting  of  one  of  the 
Landgericht  judges  as  president,  and  two 


66  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Handelsrichter  or  commercial  judges  nomi- 
nated for  a  space  of  three  years  by  the  Cham- 
bers of  Commerce  and  Merchant  Guilds  and 
confirmed  by  the  sovereign  of  the  State  in 
question.  Any  German  is  eligible  as  com- 
mercial judge,  who  has  been  registered  as  a 
merchant,  and  is  thirty  years  old  or  more. 
The  Commercial  Chamber  comes  into  action 
on  the  application  of  one  or  two  parties  to  a 
suit  brought  in  the  ordinary  course  of  pro- 
cedure before  the  Landgericht  in  respect 
of  transactions  which  are  commercial  trans- 
actions for  both  parties.  Criminal  matters 
are  tried  and  decided  by  the  criminal  court 
of  the  Landgericht  only  when  the  penalty  does 
not  exceed  five  years'  imprisonment,  or  the 
crime  has  been  committed  by  persons  under 
eighteen  years  of  age.  (It  should  be  added 
that  for  juvenile  persons  Germany  is  adopting 
the  system  of  children's  courts  in  vogue 
elsewhere.) 

In  all  other  criminal  cases  the  competent 
court  is  no  longer  the  Landgericht,  but  the 
Grand  Jury  or  Schwurgericht,  which  is 
composed  of  three  judges  and  twelve  jurors 
summoned  from  the  same  lists  and  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Schoffen.  Both  the  public 
prosecutor  and  the  defendant  have  the  right 
of  appeal.  There  is,  however,  a  preliminary 
stage  before  a  case  reaches  the  Schwurgericht. 
The  public  prosecutor  may,  and  usually  does, 


THE    EXECUTIVE  67 

request  the  Landgericht  to  appoint  an  Unter- 
suchungsrichter  or  examining  judge.  The 
examining  judge  decides  whether  the  circum- 
stances warrant  immediate  arrest.  During 
this  preliminary  examination  the  prisoner 
may  be  represented  by  counsel,  but  the  latter 
has  not  the  right  to  inspect  the  files  prepared 
by  the  examining  judge  ;  his  office  is  confined 
to  making  application  on  behalf  of  his  client 
for  medical  attendance,  relief  in  the  matter 
of  special  food  and  bedding,  and  if  necessary, 
removal  to  a  hospital.  When  the  preliminary 
enquiry  is  completed  the  documents  are  sent 
to  the  public  prosecutor,  who  then  decides 
whether  he  will  demand  a  trial  before  the 
Grand  Jury  or  will  request  the  jury  to  dismiss 
the  case. 

When  the  case  comes  for  trial  the  prisoner 
is  interrogated  by  the  presiding  judge.  His 
attorney  may  not  put  questions  to  him ;  he 
must  ask  the  judge  to  do  so.  Similarly  wit- 
nesses may  only  be  interrogated  by  prosecutor 
or  counsel  for  the  defence  after  the  judge  has 
endeavoured  to  elicit  the  witness's  story  if 
he  has  one  to  tell.  The  jury  passes  a  verdict 
of  guilty  or  not  guilty  on  the  several  counts 
of  the  indictment,  and  after  this  verdict 
the  prosecution  demands  such  and  such  a 
sentence,  the  defence  endeavours  to  get  it 
lessened,  and  the  bench  of  judges  decides. 
The  only  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the 


68  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Schwurgericht  is  to  the  Criminal  Senate 
of  the  Imperial  Court  at  Leipzig,  and  can  only 
be  made  on  the  ground  of  a  technical  error 
in  the  procedure  before  the  Schwurgericht. 
The  Oberlandesgericht  is,  roughly  speaking, 
a  court  of  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  the 
Landesgericht  when  such  appeal  is  based  on 
technical  faults  of  procedure.  It  is  not  a 
court  of  appeal  from  the  Grand  Jury. 

The  Imperial  Court  at  Leipzig  is,  as  already 
explained,  entirely  independent  of  State 
influence  or  control.  It  acts  as  final  court  of 
appeal  in  many  civil  and  criminal  cases, 
but  it  is  also  the  court  of  first  and  last  instance 
in  cases  of  treason  against  a  State  and  of 
high  treason  against  the  Emperor  or  the 
Empire,  and  especially  in  all  cases  of  espion- 
age. It  is  a  collegiate  court  with  a  president, 
presidents  of  the  various  senates  or  divisions, 
and  associate  justices.  All  are  imperial 
officials,  appointed  for  life  at  a  fixed  salary 
by  the  Emperor.  The  bench  for  a  trial  by 
one  senate  of  the  Imperial  Court  consists 
of  a  president  and  six  justices,  but  in  trials 
for  high  treason  and  most  cases  of  espionage, 
it  is  usual  for  two  senates  to  sit  together. 
At  present  there  are  ninety-two  justices  of 
Imperial  Court,  including  the  president  and 
the  presidents  of  senates. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  FUNCTIONS  OF  EMPIRE  ;  THE  ARMED 
FORCES  ;  IMPERIAL  FINANCE  ;  SOCIAL 
INSURANCE,  AND  THE  COLONIES 

THE  new  Empire  was  founded  with  the  sword 
and  the  essential  theory  of  its  structure  is 
that  it  must  be  so  defended.  Hence  the 
military  forces  available  for  the  purpose 
must  be  the  first  and  most  important  field 
for  the  exercise  of  the  imperial  powers.  The 
German  Emperor,  the  Supreme  War  Lord, 
has,  as  we  have  seen,  the  right  to  mobilize 
and  dislocate  the  troops  of  the  Empire,  the 
right  to  declare  war  and  peace,  the  right  to 
appoint  the  highest  officers  of  the  army,  and 
to  receive  their  oath  of  obedience  (Fahneneid). 
Moreover,  according  to  the  constitution  of  the 
Empire,  every  able-bodied  male  is  liable  for 
service  in  the  army  for  a  period  of  one,  two, 
or  three  years,  one  if  he  have  passed  the  one- 
year  volunteer  service  examination,  two  if  he 
serve  in  the  infantry,  and  three  if  with  the 
mounted  forces. 

But  on  looking  a  little  closer  one  finds 


70  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

that  there  is  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  an 
imperial  Army  Board  or  an  imperial  War 
Office,  or  even  an  imperial  Military  Gazette. 
It  is  impossible  in  the  space  at  disposal  to 
trace  the  origin  of  these  apparent  discrepancies, 
but  in  part  they  will  be  understood  in  the 
light  of  the  development  of  the  Empire  out  of 
the  northern  bund.  Theoretically  every  State 
of  the  Empire  contributes  a  contingent  to  the 
army,  practically  there  are  only  four  con- 
tingents, those  of  Bavaria,  Wiirttemberg, 
Saxony  and  Prussia,  the  Prussian  contingent 
including  the  minor  contingents  of  the  other 
States.  Moreover,  although  the  imperial  con- 
stitution gave  the  legislative  control  of  military 
affairs  to  the  imperial  bodies,  a  sub-clause 
provided  that  in  Bills  relating  to  military 
affairs  where  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion 
in  the  Bundesrath,  the  vote  of  the  Praesidium, 
that  is  of  Prussia,  shall  always  decide  provided 
that  vote  is  cast  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
existing  order  of  things. 

The  Prussian  military  system  is  the  basis  of 
the  imperial  system,  and  the  clause  mentioned 
above  provides  for  its  maintenance  against 
any  modifications  proposed  by  the  other 
States.  The  Prussian  military  code  was  made 
obligatory  for  all  States,  and  the  Prussian 
military  "  cut "  and  equipment  was  made 
equally  obligatory,  but  the  States  retained 
the  right  of  appointing  officers  other  than  the 


FUNCTIONS   OF   EMPIRE          71 

chief  officers.  The  latter  are  appointed  by 
the  Emperor,  but  even  such  appointments  are 
"  promulgated,"  that  is  gazetted,  not  in  the 
name  of  the  Empire,  but  by  the  princes  or 
senates  of  the  several  States.  Bavaria's 
special  privilege  in  military  matters  consists 
really  of  a  kind  of  veto  against  the  intro- 
duction for  Bavaria  of  military  ordinances 
and  legislation  made  for  Prussia  prior  to 
1870 :  she  possesses  therefore  the  honorary 
distinction  of  a  kind  of  voluntary  conformity 
point  by  point.  (But  she  is  bound  by  all 
subsequent  imperial  legislation  regarding  the 
army. 

The  regiments  of  the  German  army  are 
numbered  continuously,  and  in  all  other  ways 
uniformity  is  fully  provided  for,  so  that  it  is 
correct  to  say  that  the  contingent  system  is 
fonaal^and  only  in  so  far  effective  as  it  gives 
the  regiments  a  territorial  connection  and 
character.  The  numerical  strength  of  the 
contingents,  according  to  Article  63  of  the 
constitution,  is  to  be  determined  by  the 
Emperor,  but  the  preceding  article  provides 
that  the  peace-footing  of  the  army  (one  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  1867)  shall  only  be 
altered  by  imperial  law.  It  has,  of  course, 
so  been  altered  and  very  considerably.  The 
new  bill  of  April,  1913,  raised  the  total  peace 
strength  of  the  army  to  661,176  privates, 
109,535  non-commissioned  officers,  and  37,553 


72  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

officers  and  officials  holding  officers'  rank. 
To  these  must  further  be  added  about  20,000 
one-year  volunteers. 

Next  to  the  regular  peace  army  comes  the 
reserve,  into  which  are  drafted  the  men  who 
have  served  their  term  with  the  colours.  The 
infantry  and  two-year  men  serve  five  years 
with  the  reserve,  and  the  three-year  men 
(cavalry  and  horse-artillery)  four  years.  They 
are  called  up  in  large  contingents  each  year 
for  exercise  with  the  regular  troops,  but  the 
same  men  are  not  called  more  than  once  in 
two  years,  and  for  the  most  part  their  service 
amounts  to  two  periods  of  about  thirty  days 
each.  From  the  first-line  reserve,  men  are 
passed  into  the,  Landwehr  or  second  reserve, 
to  which  they  belong  for  five  or  six  years  if 
infantry,  and  three  years  in  the  first  division 
with  eight  in  the  second  division,  if  cavalry. 
Infantry  of  the  second  line  are  called  up  for 
about  a  week  or  fourteen  days  at  various 
periods.  The  last  line  is  the  Landsturm,  for 
which  there  seems  to  be  no  adequate  English 
rendering.  Landsturm  men  are  called  for 
occasional  roll-call,  but  they  are  not  called 
upon  for  service  in  the  field..  At  45  military 
obligation  ceases. 

This  is  the  outline  of  the  compulsory  en- 
listment scheme.  Then  there  are  also  a 
number  (about  50,000)  of  volunteers  who 
"  compound "  after  reaching  non-commis- 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          78 

sioned  rank  in  their  first  enlistment.  They 
enlist  voluntarily  at  eighteen  (instead  of  at 
21)  for  three  years  in  the  infantry  or  four  in 
the  cavalry,  and  may  then  re-enlist.  These 
non-commissioned  men  are  entitled  at  the 
end  of  twelve  years'  service  to  a  bounty  of 
about  £50  ;  they  are  also  eligible  as  candidates 
for  the  military  vacancies  in  the  civil  services, 
that  is  for  a  certain  number  of  appointments 
in  the  postal  service,  the  police,  etc.,  reserved 
for  time-expired  men. 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  skeleton 
reserve  must  be  supplied  with  officers  both 
when  called  up  for  periodical  short  service, 
and  in  an  emergency  for  active  service.  To 
provide  these  officers  at  least  in  part  there 
exists  the  privileged  class  of  one-year  volun- 
teers. These  men,  who  naturally  belong  to 
the  well-to-do  classes,  must  have  passed  the 
second-class  examination  in  a  full-grade 
gymnasium  (see  chapter  on  Education)  or 
modern  school  or  an  equivalent  examination 
from  other  schools.  Application  for  permission 
to  serve  as  a  one-year  volunteer  must  be  made 
in  the  eighteenth  year,  but  service  may  be 
delayed  with  permission  to  the  twenty-fourth 
year.  After  four  months'  service  "  Ein- 
jahrige  '  are  required  to  pass  a  theoretical  and 
practical  examination,  and  may  then  be 
recommended  as  aspirant-officers  on  leaving  : 
they  pay  for  their  own  rations,  arms,  quarters 


74  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

and  equipment,  and  may  choose  any  branch 
or  even  any  regiment  of  the  army,  or  they 
may  choose  the  navy.  At  the  expiry  of  their 
year's  service  they  are  put  up  for  election  to  the 
corps  of  officers  of  the  regiment  they  have 
chosen ;  the  officers'  corps  of  the  regiment 
has  the  absolute  right  of  blackballing  them, 
and  this  veto  it  is  which  gives  rise  to  most  of 
the  popular  complaints  about  the  system. 

Quite  apart  from  the  strain  caused  by  the 
preparation  for  and  anxiety  regarding  the  first 
examination  on  leaving  school,  which  is 
thought  to  be  peculiarly  disastrous  to  the 
health  of  many  young  students,  there  are 
certain  .injustices  regarding  the  selection  of 
aspirants  by  the  officers'  corps.  Practically, 
the  son  of  Jewish  parents  is  certain  to  be 
black-balled,  though  it  is  notorious  that  such 
blackballing  excludes  many  excellent  officers, 
whilst  the  privilege  of  rank  results  in  the 
inclusion  of  many  who  do  no  credit  to  the 
army  or  to  the  officers'  corps. 

Another  source  for  the  provision  of  officers 
are  the  cadet  schools,  where  sons  of  officers  and 
civil  servants  are  specially  educated  from  an 
early  age  for  a  military  career.  They  usually 
enter  the  army  at  18  as  ensigns,  become  second 
lieutenants  between  19  and  20,  lieutenants 
six  years  later,  captains  about  83,  and  majors 
about  45.  A  lieutenant's  pay  rises  from  £60 
to  £85,  up  to  the  sixth  year,  thence  up  to 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          75 

£120  in  the  twelfth  year.  A  captain's  pay 
rises  from  £170  to  £255.  These  figures  will 
serve  to  show  why  indebtedness  in  crack 
regiments  is  apt  to  become  the  rule  rather 
than  the  exception,  why  the  Emperor  finds 
it  necessary  so  frequently  to  insist  upon 
simplicity  and  abstinence  in  the  officers' 
corps,  and  lastly,  why  German  officers  have 
"become  a  name"  for  seeking  rich  brides. 
The  following  figures  give  approximately  the 
cost  to  each  officer  of  his  career. 

Outfit  as  ensign,  £25. 

Financial  assistance  (17  months  at  £5  per 
month),  £85. 

Outfit  as  officer,  £50. 

Financial  assistance  : 

First  three  years,  monthly,  £3 15s.      £135 
Second  three       „         „       £3  £108 

Subsequently  (ten  years),  monthly 

£2  to  £2  10s £257 

This  would  give  a  total  of  £700,  but  the  actual 
amount  (reckoned  on  the  lowest  possible 
terms)  is  really  nearer  £800. 

According  to  a  rescript  of  the  Emperor  not 
more  than  £2  5s.  is  to  be  required  monthly  by 
an  infantry  officer  in  addition  to  his  pay  ;  but 
in  point  of  fact  it  is  clear  that  this  sum  will 
rarely  suffice  him.  It  is  perhaps  unnecessary 
to  add  more  on  this  subject,  but  it  may  be 
mentioned  in  conclusion  that  about  65  per 
cent,  of  recruits  accepted  as  fully  fit  for  the 


76  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

two  or  three  years'  service  are  provided  by 
villages  with  populations  not  exceeding  2,000, 
whilst  cities  of  over  100,000  inhabitants 
provide  not  more  than  7  per  cent.  It  is  clear 
that  this  peculiar  drain  on  the  able-bodied 
population  of  the  villages  is  a  special  handicap 
to  German  agriculture,  and  Dr.  Heim,  a  leader 
of  the  "South-German  Peasants'  Union," 
shows  that  it  is  particularly  a  handicap 
to  the  small  independent  farmers.  He  even 
declares  that  many  peasant  families  who  have 
sent  several  sons  to  the  army  are  ruined  by 
the  expense  incurred,  not  only  in  providing 
substitutes  for  the  able-bodied  lads  whilst 
with  the  colours  but  in  supplying  these  sons 
with  money,  clothes,  and  additional  supplies 
of  various  kinds.  He  estimates  the  expense 
of  such  supply  at  about  £8  per  annum  for 
each  son  sent  to  join  the  colours. 

The  German  army  is  not  organised  for  ex- 
peditionary purposes  :  the  whole  scheme,  the 
carefully  regulated  and  periodically  revised 
plans  for  employment  of  the  railways  upon 
mobilisation,  the  details  of  supply  and  the 
calculations  of  the  quantity  of  fodder  which 
German  farmers  are  under  obligations  to 
provide  upon  the  outbreak  of  war,  the  lists 
of  available  private  motor-cars,  and  so  forth, 
are  based,  as  is  the  organisation  of  the  army 
itself,  upon  the  theory  of  the  defence  of 
Germany  upon  two  frontiers.  When  it  became 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          77 

necessary  to  organize  an  expeditionary  force 
at  the  time  of  the  Herero  campaign  in  South- 
West  Africa,  it  was  found  that  mistakes  and 
miscalculations  were  at  the  least  as  frequent, 
and  in  some  instances  hardly  less  disastrous 
than  those  made  in  expeditionary  campaigns 
of  other  nations.  This  is,  of  course,  the  very 
nature  of  a  "  nation  in  arms,"  which  is  what 
the  newest  bill  has  made  Germany,  and  it  is 
the  basis  also  of  the  German  claim  that 
the  army  is  not  intended  for  offence  but  for 
defence.  < 

Unlike  the  army,  the  German  navy  has 
been  from  the  outset  an  imperial  factor.  It  is 
administered  by  an  imperial  Admiralty,  its 
officers  are  imperial,  and  the  expense  of 
creation  and  maintenance  falls  upon  the 
imperial  treasury.  Hence  article  53  of  the 
constitution  declares  that  "  the  navy  is 
unitary  (as  opposed  to  contingental)  under 
the  supreme  command  of  the  Kaiser." 
Immediately  subordinate  to  the  Emperor  is 
the  Admiral's  staff,  with  its  seat  in  Berlin. 
This  controls  the  naval  appointments  and 
similar  matters.  On  the  other  hand  the 
Admiralty  (Reichsmarineamt)  is  not  an 
independent  office,  but  like  the  Foreign  Office 
is  a  branch  of  the  Chancellery,  the  Chancellor 
being  responsible  for  its  acts.  That  it  has 
tended  in  recent  years  to  develop  an  excessive 
degree  of  independence,  especially  in  the  way 


78  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

of  publicistic  propaganda,  is  a  charge  which 
it  would  be  impossible  to  disprove,  but 
within  recent  months  its  political  activities 
have  been  restrained,  owing  to  the  private 
representations  of  the  Chancellor  and  the 
Foreign  Secretary. 

Nevertheless  the  Secretary  for  the  Navy 
exercises  an  important,  and  at  times  an 
unfortunate  political  influence,  but  this  seems 
to  be  a  part  of  a  general  tendency  amongst  the 
departments  of  the  Chancellery,  those  for  the 
colonies,  foreign  affairs,  and  so  forth,  tending 
also  to  develop  an  independence  of  the 
Chancellery.  The  fact  is  that  since  Bismarck's 
time  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  have  so  enor- 
mously developed  in  many  directions  that  no 
one  man  can  hope  to  be  master  of  all  depart- 
ments, and  whilst  the  responsibility  of  the 
Chancellor  for  all  departments  is  still  main- 
tained as  a  legal  formula  it  is  becoming  in 
practice  little  more  than  a  fiction.  The 
danger  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Chancellor's 
subordinate  officers  are  only  responsible  to 
him,  and  he  only  to  the  Emperor,  so  that  there 
is  no  real  public  control,  and  the  burden  of 
decision  always  rests  with  the  Emperor,  who 
in  turn  is  liable  at  times  to  be  misinformed 
by  his  confidential  advisers. 

It  would  serve  no  purpose  to  repeat  here 
at  length  the  history  of  th?  rise  of  the  German 
navy.  At  the  time  of  the  war  with  France 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          79 

Prussia  had  but  a  few  ships,  and  they  of  no 
great  power,  and  yet  they  were  sufficient 
to  prevent  an  attack  on  Kiel,  the  war-harbour 
of  Prussia,  by  the  French  admiral  Bouet- 
Willaumez,  who  was  otherwise  able  to  sail 
unmolested  along  the  German  coastline. 
This  itself  was  a  lesson  in  the  influence  of 
sea-power,  but  the  beginning  of  the  German 
navy  may  be  traced  from  the  time  when  it 
became  clear  that  some  protection  should  be 
provided  for  the  increasing  overseas  commerce 
of  the  new  Empire.  This  was  about  1889, 
when  the  first  commander-in-chief  of  the  navy 
was  appointed.  Nine  years  later,  chiefly 
through  the  energetic  efforts  of  the  Emperor, 
the  first  navy  bill  passed  the  Reichstag. 
It  provided  for  the  construction  of  a  fleet 
of  nineteen  battleships  and  forty-two  cruisers. 
Two  years  later  the  programme  was  again 
enlarged,  and  provision  was  now  made  for 
thirty-eight  battleships,  fourteen  first-class 
cruisers,  and  thirty-eight  smaller  cruisers, 
with  ninety-six  torpedo  boats  and  destroyers. 
The  creation  of  the  German  torpedo  fleet  is 
peculiarly  the  work  of  Admiral  von  Tirpitz, 
who  entered  the  navy  in  1865  and  became  chief 
of  the  Baltic  station  in  1891.  In  1908  the 
naval  programme  was  again  altered,  in 
consequence  of  the  decision  to  reduce  the  life 
of  a  battleship  from  twenty-five  to  twenty 
years,  to  add  a  submarine  flotilla,  and  to 


80  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

increase  the  torpedo  fleet  to  144.  In  the  form 
which  subsequent  alterations  have  given  the 
naval  programme,  it  provides  for  the  creation 
by  1917  of  a  battle  fleet  with  one  flagship 
and  five  squadrons  of  eight  battleships  each, 
ten  Dreadnought  cruisers,  and  thirty  small 
cruisers.  The  foreign  fleet  would  then  consist 
of  ten  large  and  ten  small  cruisers.  The 
"  Material  Reserve "  provided  for  in  the 
previous  programmes  was  dropped  out  in 
1912,  when  the  battle  fleet  was  increased. 
It  was  then  arranged  that  the  active  battle 
fleet  should  consist  of  three  instead  of  two 
squadrons,  with  two  squadrons  as  before  in 
reserve.  All  three  squadrons  of  the  active 
battle  fleet  are  to  be  kept  permanently  in 
commission  and  half  of  the  reserve. 

The  German  naval  centres  are  Kiel  and 
Wilhelmshaven.  The  latter  has  been  in  the 
main  a  creation  of  the  present  century. 
It  had  indeed  been  long  projected,  but  its 
great  development  was  largely  necessitated 
by  the  fact  that  the  Kiel  canal  at  the  time 
could  not  accommodate  modern  battleships. 
In  the  main,  however,  it  seems  to  be  true  that 
the  chief  German  naval  station  must  now  be 
taken  to  include  the  whole  Bight  of  Heligo- 
land, that  island  having  been  gradually  built 
up  and  developed  into  a  sort  of  outer-base. 
The  Kiel  canal  is  also  being  increased,  not 
merely  to  take  present  battleships  of  the 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          81 

super-Dreadnought  type,  but  also  the  con- 
jectural giants  of  the  future,  up  to  50,000 
tons,  a  size  which  is  at  present  only  reached 
by  the  huge  transatlantic  liners.  The  chief 
construction  docks  are  the  Admiralty  docks 
at  Kiel  and  Wilhelmshaven,  Krupp's  docks 
at  Kiel,  the  Vulcan,  Bloehm  and  Voss  at 
Hamburg,  and  others.  The  private  yards 
employ  nearly  60,000  artificers,  or  nearly 
treble  the  numjber  employed  in  the  Govern- 
ment yards.  Of  the  twelve  naval  stations 
which  have  arisen  since  1898  Sonderburg  is 
mainly  devoted  to  marine  artillery,  Eckern- 
forde  to  torpedo-instruction,  Cuxhaven  to 
coastal  artillery,  Emden  to  mines,  and 
Wangeroog  to  light  artillery,  whilst  Murwik 
and  Flensburg  are  the  naval  educational 
centres. 

The  navy  is  recruited  like  the  army  by 
conscription.  The  seafaring  class  is,  of  course, 
specially  reserved,  but  landsmen  may  also 
enlist  voluntarily,  if  medically  fit,  for  four 
years  or  more.  The  usual  period  of  service 
for  ordinary  recruits  is  three  years  in  the  active 
fleet,  four  years  in  the  first  reserve,  and  another 
five  years  in  the  second  reserve.  The  age 
limit  for  the  war  call  is  40.  Petty  officers 
are  recruited  largely  from  volunteer  enlist- 
ments of  lads  between  15  and  18.  A  number 
of  engineer  officers  of  the  reserve  are  obtained 
from  the  one-year  volunteers,  of  whom  some 


82  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

700  annually  enter  the  navy.  The  training 
of  the  officers  of  the  navy  proceeds  very  much 
on  English  lines,  the  base,  of  the  system  being 
the  naval  cadet  corps,  though  it  appears  that 
German  cadets  join  the  service  rather  later 
than  in  England. 

There  are  not  wanting,  of  course,  patriotic 
Germans  who  hope  and  believe  that  in  time 
Germany  will  possess  the  most  powerful 
navy  as  well  as  the  most  powerful  army. 
They  base  their  calculation  for  the  most  part 
not  on  any  supposition  that  England  would 
not  or  could  not  build  two  ships  for  one  or 
even  more  if  necessary,  but  on  the  theory 
that  conscription  alone  can  ultimately  enable 
any  country  to  man  the  ships  that  the  growth 
of  navies  all  over  the  world  will  render 
necessary.  Lack  of  petty  officers  as  well 
as,  or  rather,  more  than  lack  of  seamen, 
is  the  rock  on  which  these  enthusiasts  hope 
to  see  the  British  navy  go  to  pieces.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  true  that  the  German  con- 
ception of  the  object  of  her  navy  has  been 
developed.  The  preamble  to  the  first  navy 
bill  asserted  that  Germany  required  a  navy 
not  only  to  protect  her  commerce,  but  chiefly 
in  order  that  her  naval  strength  "  might  be 
such  that  even  the  greatest  sea-power  must 
hesitate  to  attack  Germany  unless  she  were 
willing  to  risk  her  whole  position  as  a  Great 
Power."  Latterly  the  creed  has  been  devel- 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          83 

oped  into  a  demand  that  the  German  navy 
shall  be  so  powerful  that  "  Germany  may  be 
able  to  compel  respect  for  her  wishes  in  any 
international  complication  or  development 
in  any  part  of  the  world."  Vires  acquirit 
eundo. 

Between  the  army  and  the  navy  there  has 
arisen  in  the  last  year  a  third  arm  whose 
importance  has  never  yet  been  tested  in  any 
important  war,  and  which  it  is  thought  may 
profoundly  modify  future  European  contests 
by  sea  and  land.  That  arm  is  the  aerial 
"  force."  The  great  surprise  of  the  German 
military  bill  of  1913  was  the  large  amount 
demanded  for  the  creation  of  an  aerial  depart- 
ment of  the  army  (£4,000,000),  in  addition  to 
the  demands  already  made  for  the  navy. 
Germany  had  already  made  great  strides 
in  the  provision  of  aeronautical  sections  for 
the  army  ;  during  several  precedent  autumn 
manosuvres  airships  and  aeroplanes  had  been 
tested,  and  it  was  now  finally  decided  to 
equip  both  army  and  navy  with  a  powerful 
aerial  force.  The  bill  proposed  to  provide 
for  the  navy  that  there  should  be  two 
"  Staffel  "  (squadrons  with  a  base)  of  airships 
consisting  of  four  vessels  to  each  squadron, 
with  one  in  reserve.  Both  squadrons  were 
to  be  stationed  at  a  common  base,  probably 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  and  the  base  was  to 
be  furnished  with  double  revolving  sheds  and 


84  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

all  the  necessary  gas  and  other  installations. 
There  would  also  be  a  "  mother-station " 
for  naval  aeroplanes  and  six  coastal  stations. 
There  would  be  thirty-six  planes  (presumably 
hydro-aeroplanes)  always  in  service  and 
fourteen  in  reserve.  The  coastal  stations 
would  be  maintained  in  condition  for  use 
immediately  on  an  emergency,  would  doubt- 
less be  guarded  at  all  times,  but  would 
not  be  occupied  except  at  manoeuvre  times. 
From  this  it  may  be  concluded  that  the 
chain  of  islands  with  Borkum  as  the  centre 
would  be  the  situation  of  at  any  rate  some  of 
these  coastal  stations.  The  staff  and  crews 
were  to  number  1,452. 

For  the  army  the  following  are  approximate 
figures  :  Airships,  25  or  30  ;  aeroplanes,  150 
to  200.  The  principal  airship  stations  were 
to  be  Berlin,  Cologne,  Mannheim,  Metz, 
Konigsberg,  and  Graudenz,  with  "  company- 
stations  "  at  Hanover,  Dresden,  Diisseldorf, 
Darmstadt,  Lahr,  Friedrichshafen  and  Schnei- 
demuhl.  The  five  battalions  of  the  airship 
arm  are,  it  is  understood,  to  have  from  six 
to  eight  vessels  each,  but  some  of  these  will, 
of  course,  be  reserves,  and  Berlin  will  have 
only  three,  with  one  reserve.  The  distribution 
of  the  aeroplanes  is  uncertain,  but  they  will 
certainly  be  placed  wherever  there  is  sufficient 
room  to  manoeuvre  them  within  existing 
fortified  districts.  The  Government  further 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          85 

proposes  to  subsidize  private  craft,  and  to 
keep  a  register  of  privately  owned  aeroplanes 
available  in  an  emergency  (as  is  already  done 
of  motor  cars  that  could  be  used  for  transport 
of  troops  and  provisions). 

It  is  not  even  claimed  that  the  airship 
is  as  yet  a  reliable  arm,  but  the  object  of 
the  Government  is  to  be  adequately  provided 
with  the  latest  aeronautical  appliances  so  that 
they  may  be  used  to  the  utmost  if  the  con- 
ditions arise  in  which  experiment  has  shown 
them  to  be  of  probable  value.  The  Admiralty 
officials  believe  that  given  certain  atmospheric 
conditions,  rigid  airships  might  be  very  useful 
for  "  attack,"  and  that  in  any  case  during 
the  course  of  a  naval  campaign  in  the  North 
Sea  they  would  do  great  service  as  scouts. 
At  the  time  the  bill  was  presented  to  the 
Reichstag  there  were  existing  or  building 
three  army  airships  of  the  Zeppelin  type, 
two  naval  airships  and  three  privately  owned. 
Germany  also  possessed  one  rigid  airship  with 
wooden  frame  (Schutte-Lanz),  and  another 
was  building.  There  were  also  four  non- 
rigid  vessels  (Parsevals),  belonging  to  the  army, 
and  two  private  vessels.  The  list  was  com- 
pleted by  three  semi-rigid  vessels  ("Gross"), 
in  which  the  car  is  carried  by  a  framework. 
The  Siemens-Schuckert  and  Clouth  vessels 
have  been  dismantled  and  the  companies 
concerned  have  ceased  construction. 


86  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

It  has  already  been  said  that  the  imperial 
navy  is  constructed  and  maintained  out  of 
imperial  funds.  The  great  and  increasing 
expense  of  this  imperial  factor  was  not 
provided  for  in  the  original  federal  financial 
arrangements,  nor  was  provision  made  for 
many  other  items  of  expenditure  now  con- 
nected with  the  increasing  number  and  extent 
of  strictly  imperial  functions.  A  word  of 
explanation  is  required  here,  though  it  will 
be  clear  from  preceding  chapters  that  the 
preservation  of  the  individuality  of  the  States 
within  the  Empire  made  a  simultaneous 
preservation  of  their  individual  budgets 
necessary. 

Since  the  individual  States  were  not  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  Empire,  but  were  left  as  to  a 
great  extent  self-administrative,  independent 
principalities,  they  had  also  to  be  left 
a  fiscal  independence,  and  the  sphere  whence 
the  Empire  could  collect  revenues  for  its  own 
purposes  was  limited.  The  basis  at  first 
of  the  imperial  fiscal  theory  was  a  system  of 
annual  contributions  from  the  individual 
States  calculated  according  to  the  actual 
number  of  inhabitants  and  called  matricular 
contributions.  The  amount  of  this  contri- 
bution per  head  of  population  was,  and  is, 
fixed  annually,  usually  in  November,  with  the 
fixing  of  the  imperial  budget  for  the  coming 
year.  It  has  to  be  fixed  thus  early  in  order 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          87 

that  the  individual  States  may  have  time  to 
arrange  their  own  budgets  according  to  the 
amount  that  they  have  to  contribute  to  the 
imperial  treasury. 

But  there  were  also  certain  duties  upon 
articles  of  consumption  earmarked  for  imperial 
purposes.  These  were  the  customs  duties, 
less  the  cost  of  collection,  which  is  repaid  to 
the  individual  frontier  States  who  collect 
them,  and  also  the  excise  duties  on  tobacco, 
salt,  sugar,  beers,  brandies  and  by-products 
of  the  beet-sugar  industry.  It  was  arranged, 
however,  that  the  Empire  should  only  receive 
the  amounts  proceeding  from  the  tobacco 
and  customs  duties  up  to  the  annual  value 
of  £6,500,000.  Any  surplus  was  to  be  repaid 
to  the  individual  States  in  proportion  to  their 
assessment  for  the  matricular  contributions. 
In  some  years  the  amount  thus  repaid  ex- 
ceeded the  matricular  contributions  collected. 
Thus  in  1889  the  States  received  back  nearly 
£7,000,000  more  than  they  paid  in  contribu- 
tions. There  was  a  plus  repayment  in  all 
years  from  1883  to  1892,  and  again  from  1895 
to  1897.  In  1901  the  matricular  contributions 
and  the  repayments  exactly  balanced. 

This  system,  however,  presented  two  evils, 
first,  that  the  individual  States  had  great 
difficulty  in  making  up  their  budgets  because 
they  could  never  be  sure  whether  the  repay- 
ment would  equal  or  exceed  or  fall  below  the 


88  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

amount  of  the  matricular  contributions  ;  and 
secondly,  that  although  the  imperial  treasury 
was  making  these  repayments,  they  did  not 
represent,  as  they  were  intended  to  do,  the 
actual  amount  collected  by  the  Empire 
above  and  beyond  its  own  requirements. 
On  the  contrary,  the  Empire  only  succeeded 
in  dispensing  with  loans,  thanks  to  the 
millions  paid  by  France  as  war-indemnity, 
up  to  1875.  In  that  year  the  Empire  began 
to  issue  treasury-notes,  which  were  bonded 
in  1877.  From  1877  the  imperial  loans 
increased  rapidly,  partly  owing  to  the  require- 
ments for  the  increase  of  army  and  navy, 
and  partly  owing  to  the  demands  for  subven- 
tions to  the  contributory  old-age,  invalid,  and 
other  social  insurance  schemes.  By  1891 
the  imperial  debt  had  risen  to  £75,000,000 
sterling,  and  in  1911  it  was  approximately 
£250,000,000.  Most  of  the  expenditure  repre- 
sented by  this  sum  was  unproductive,  for  the 
property  of  the  Empire,  as  distinguished 
from  the  property  of  the  individual  States, 
in  which  money  had  been  invested  at  profit, 
was  represented  principally  by  the  improve- 
ments to  the  railways  in  Alsace-Lorraine 
(originally  taken  over  from  France),  as  well 
as  some  lines  in  the  Duchy  of  Luxemburg. 
The  State  loans  raised  by  individual  States 
are  not  thus  unproductive  ;  for  instance,  the 
Prussian  State  loans  have  been  largely  em- 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          89 

ployed  in  extending  canals  and  State  railways, 
which  are  highly  productive  forms  of  invest- 
ment, and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  constitute 
one  of  the  most  important  sources  of  Prussian 
revenue.  Moreover,  Prussia  and  other  States 
have  fixed  the  gradual  repayment  of  loans  by 
law ;  since  1897  Prussian  budgets  must 
provide  annually  for  the  repayment  of  not 
less  than  three-fifths  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
loan. 

To  remedy  the  hopeless  condition  of  the 
imperial  finances  the  law  of  May,  1904, 
repealed  the  constitutional  arrangement  for 
the  return  to  the  individual  States  of  the  part 
of  the  proceeds  from  customs  and  tobacco 
duties  exceeding  six  and  a  half  millions. 
The  same  law,  however,  provided  that  the 
proceeds  of  certain  other  taxes  (mash-vat 
and  brandy  materials)  should  be  handed  over 
to  the  individual  States  ;  should  these  pay- 
ments not  cover  the  matricular  contributions 
the  contributions  were  to  be  repaid  only  in 
such  additional  measure  as  the  imperial 
surplus  would  allow.  What  this  law  appar- 
ently did  was  to  abandon  the  fiction  that  the 
Empire  could  meet  its  financial  requirements 
without  genuine  instead  of  fictitious  matricular 
contributions.  Numberless  writers  then  and 
since  then  have  pointed  out  that  the  Empire 
suffers  from  the  great  disability  of  being 
unable  to  raise  a  direct  tax  based  on  income 


90  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

for  its  own   purposes,   as   is   the   case,   for 
example,  in  England. 

The  opposition  to  a  direct  imperial  tax,  for 
which  the  Liberal  press  in  Prussia  continually 
clamours,  is  derived  first  from  the  particularist 
tendencies  still  noticeable  in  the  individual 
States,  and  secondly  from  the  fact  that  an 
imperial  income-tax  would  tax  incomes  for 
the  third  time.  It  has  to  be  explained  that 
in  Prussia  and  other  States  local  municipal 
and  communal  bodies  under  the  local  self- 
government  scheme  also  raise  a  large  part  of 
their  requirements  by  direct  taxation  of  in- 
come. In  Prussia,  for  example,  communities 
are  entitled  to  raise  one  hundred  per  cent,  of 
the  State  income-tax  for  their  own  purposes. 
Thus,  if  an  income  of  £500  pays  £15  State-tax, 
the  municipality  may  raise  an  additional  £15 
for  its  own  purposes.  Latterly  the  State  has 
raised  a  super-tax  on  incomes,  but  the  muni- 
cipalities have  been  denied  the  right  to 
utilise  this  super-tax  as  a  basis  for  their  own 
taxation.  In  cases,  however,  where  a  munici- 
pality desires  to  raise  more  than  100  per  cent, 
of  the  State  tax  for  its  own  purposes  it  is 
compelled  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the 
central  government  through  the  local  author- 
ity, and  also  to  submit  its  budget  for  Govern- 
ment inspection.  This  regulation  is  doubtless 
deliberately  intended  to  check  municipal 
extravagance  and  to  keep  the  percentage 


FUNCTIONS    OF    EMPIRE          91 

down  to  100.  Nevertheless  there  exist  such 
violent  differences  of  municipal  taxation,  as 
those  between  certain  ill-situated  towns  in 
the  north-west  with  a  percentage  of  over  200 
of  the  State  income-tax,  and  Grunewald,  a 
wealthy  forest-suburb  of  Berlin,  which  does 
not  require  to  raise  more  than  about  60 
per  cent,  of  the  tax.  And  there  are  also 
some  lucky  country  communes  which,  thanks 
to  the  possession  of  communal  mines  or 
other  valuable  property,  raise  no  local  taxes 
whatever. 

The  above  outline  may  serve  to  show  the 
difficulties  which  the  Empire  is  under  in 
raising  money  for  imperial  purposes,  since 
the  kind  of  taxes  that  it  can  raise  is  limited 
by  the  previous  ear-marking  of  the  individual 
States.  The  glamour  of  a  "  patriotic  sacri- 
fice "  had  to  be  thrown  over  the  "  revolu- 
tionary "  proposal  to  raise  the  fifty  millions 
required  for  the  Government's  military  pro- 
gramme in  1913  by  means  of  what  is  in  reality 
an  imperial  property-tax,  and  in  order  to 
cover  the  additional  annual  recurring  expense 
of  the  increased  army  bill  resort  has  been 
had  once  more  to  an  increase  of  the  matricular 
contributions,  it  being  however  provided 
that  the  additional  sum  to  be  produced  each 
year  by  matricular  contributions  must  be 
raised  by  each  State,  not  in  any  way  it  pleases 
as  heretofore,  but  by  a  tax  on  "  incomes, 


92  GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

property,  or  capital."  That  is  how  the 
Government  proposes  to  avoid  the  odium  of 
breaking  with  the  tradition  of  forty  years 
by  introducing  annual  imperial  direct  taxa- 
tion. It  is  claimed  that  little  more  than  the 
phantom  of  that  tradition  will  any  longer  be 
left. 

It  is  perhaps  desirable  to  add  one  word 
concerning  the  famous  war-reserve  of 
£6,000,000  in  gold,  stored  in  the  Julius  Turm 
at  Spandau  near  Berlin,  which  is  now  to  be 
raised  to  £12,000,000  in  gold  and  £6,000,000 
in  silver.  This  treasure  (according  to  Geheim- 
rath  Riesser,  Finanzielle  Kriegsbereitschaft, 
Jena,  1909)  will  be  employed  on  the  outbreak 
of  a  war  or  when  the  order  for  mobilisation  is 
given,  not  for  payment  in  gold  but  to  provide 
a  basis  for  the  issue  of  notes  of  the  Imperial 
Bank,  which  may  be  issued  under  these  cir- 
cumstances up  to  three  times  the  value  of  the 
gold  coin  handed  over  to  it.  Geheimrath 
Riesser  calculates  the  demand  on  the  out- 
break of  war  at  about  £12,500,000,  which 
must  be  paid  in  coin  (this  he  calls  the  panic- 
demand  for  coin),  £60,000,000  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  army  in  the  first  six  weeks, 
£50,000,000  for  the  demands  of  industry  for 
payment  of  wages,  etc.,  in  the  hurried  prepara- 
tion of  war  material.  Thus  the  requirement 
in  the  first  six  weeks  would  be  roughly 
£125,000,000.  He  calculates  that  under 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          93 

present  conditions  the  Imperial  Bank  could 
issue  roughly  £110,000,000  in  additional  bank- 
notes based  on  its  gold  reserve.  The  addition 
to  the  war  treasure  in  1913  was  perhaps  due 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  authorities  that  the 
panic  demand  at  the  outset,  and  the  other 
requirements  mentioned  would  be  very  much 
heavier  than  that  thus  estimated,  and  that  it 
is  desirable  to  enable  the  Reichsbank  to  issue 
nearly  another  £50,000,000  in  notes  on  the 
outbreak  of  war.  It  also  became  clear  during 
the  panic  months  of  1912-1913  that  the 
so-called  panic  demand  for  gold  will  be 
greater  than  that  estimated,  and  efforts,  it  is 
understood,  are  being  made  greatly  to  increase 
the  permanent  gold  reserve  of  the  Imperial 
Bank,  which  was  estimated  to  reach  approxi- 
mately £50,000,000  in  May,  1913. 

Reference  has  been  made  above  to  the 
cost  falling  upon  the  Empire  in  consequence 
of  its  assumption  of  the  business  of  insur- 
ance. It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  expound 
the  German  old-age  and  sickness  insurance 
system,  because  it  has  been  imitated  in 
England,  and  its  workings  are  in  the  main 
familiar.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  primarily 
the  State  control  of  insurance  and  the  com- 
pulsory character  given  to  it  first  in  Germany 
was  necessitated  partly  by  the  change  from 
independent  to  factory  labour,  but  largely 
also  by  the  paternal  system  of  Government 


94  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

itself.  Inasmuch  as  every  male  citizen  of  the 
Empire  is  compelled  to  serve  the  empire  first, 
devoting  to  it  at  least  one,  and  often  three 
years  of  the  best  part  of  his  life,  and  being 
liable  at  any  time  to  be  called  upon  to 
forsake  his  business  or  trade,  and  to  fight  for 
the  Empire,  it  became  incumbent  upon  the 
Empire  to  ensure  the  citizen  against  extreme 
want  in  old  age,  and  still  more  against  destitu- 
tion resulting  from  sickness.  The  Empire 
might  doubtless  have  introduced  a  non- 
contributory  scheme,  and  it  would  appear 
that  its  citizens  had  a  better  claim  to  non- 
contributory  pensions  than  those  where  the 
service  demanded  by  the  State  is  less  onerous. 
The  arguments  against  a  non-contributory 
system,  financial  and  politico-economic,  are, 
however,  sufficiently  familiar,  and  need  not 
be  repeated.  Germany  adopted  a  contributory- 
basis,  and  the  scope  of  its  compulsory 
insurance  arrangements  has  gradually  been 
extended,  partly  because  the  State  can  carry 
out  insurance  work  more  cheaply  than  private 
companies,  but  also  because  it  thus  gradually 
sweeps  into  its  net  precisely  the  classes  of 
insured  persons  most  desired  by  any  sound 
insurance  system.  The  old-age  clause  itself 
was  and  is  no  more  than  a  time-limit  at 
which  a  pension  must  be  given  in  return  for  the 
premiums  paid ;  in  practice  the  sickness  or 
disability  clause  is  the  essential  feature  of  the 


FUNCTIONS   OF   EMPIRE          95 

scheme.  Thus  there  were  in  1910  only  about 
100,000  old-age  pensions  in  force,  whereas 
there  were  nearly  900,000  invalidity  pensions. 
In  the  twenty  years  from  1891  to  1911  about 
£70,000,000  was  paid  out  under  the  scheme, 
and  only  two-thirds  of  this  amount  was  raised 
by  the  premiums.  Of  these  two-thirds  one- 
half  had  been  paid  by  employers.  The  scheme, 
which  is  doubtless  familiar  now  to  most 
readers,  is  as  follows  : — 

Weekly  Pay- 
ment (half  paid 
Yearly  Wage;  by  Employer); 

Class     I.— Up  to  £17  :10s Ifd. 

„      II.— £17  10s.  to  £27  10s.    ..      2|d. 
„    III.— £27  10s.  to  £42  10s.    . .     3d. 
„    IV.— £42  10s.  to  £57  10s.     ..     3fd. 
„      V.— Over  £57  10s 4|d. 

An  extension  of  the  law  raising  the  weekly 
premium  by  sums  of  £d.  in  Class  I.  to  l|d. 
in  Class  V.  has  been  arranged  to  provide  a 
fund  for  widows  and  orphans  of  pensioners. 

Other  branches  of  insurance  which  the 
Government  now  controls  are  workmen's 
accident  insurance  (premiums  paid  solely  by 
the  employer),  domestic  servants,  employees', 
and  clerks'  hospital  fund  and  compulsory 
sickness  insurance  (taken  over  from  the 
private  companies  from  January,  1914),  in- 
surance of  working-women  in  the  event  of 
motherhood  (mothers  who  do  not  go  out 


96  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

to  work  are  not  compulsorily  insured),  and 
so  forth.  It  is  further  proposed  that  the 
Imperial  Government  should  control  other 
branches  of  insurance,  such  as  fire,  life, 
burglary,  accident,  agricultural  insurance  and 
so  forth,  and  inasmuch  as  the  Government  is 
at  present  mostly  burthened  with  the  kinds 
of  insurance  which  do  not  show  a  profit,  it 
seems  not  improbable  that  it  will  even  the 
odds  by  assuming  control  of  the  forms  of 
insurance  which  in  the  hands  of  private 
companies  have  produced  handsome  profits. 
The  one  form  of  insurance  which  the  Imperial 
Government  resolutely  refuses  to  touch  is 
insurance  against  unemployment.  The  latest 
communiqu6  on  the  subject  (1912)  stated 
that  in  the  opinion  of  the  imperial  authorities 
there  had  not  yet  been  found  any  satisfactory 
basis  for  an  unemployment  insurance  scheme 
e  of  any  kind. 

Last  of  the  spheres  of  strictly  imperial 
activity  which  can  be  mentioned  here  are  the 
protectorates  (Schutzgebiete)  or  colonies. 
Bismarck  foresaw  the  difficulties  which 
colonial  questions  would  involve  for  the 
Empire,  and  therefore  was  opposed  from  the 
outset  to  their  formation  at  all.  They  had  to 
be  obviously  possessions  of  the  whole  Empire, 
and  thus  had  to  be  administered  by  the 
Empire,,  but  there  was  no  machinery  in 
existence  for  such  administration,  and  until 


FUNCTIONS   OF   EMPIRE          97 

quite  recently  there  was  no  Colonial  Office  or 
Colonial  Secretary  in  Berlin.  There  was 
only  a  branch  of  the  Foreign  Office  dealing 
with  the  protectorates  (a  sufficiently  clear 
indication  of  the  view  taken  of  them  !)  and 
an  Under-Secretary  to  deal  with  them. 
Recently  the  Colonial  Office  has  become  a 
separate  institution,  though,  like  all  the  other 
imperial  offices,  it  is  nominally  a  branch  of  the 
Chancellery.  The  complaint  of  Germans 
regarding  the  non-possession  of  colonies  is  so 
familiar  through  the  columns  of  the  daily 
press  that  there  can  be  little  need  to  repeat  it 
here.  Germany's  foreign  trade  has  enor- 
mously increased  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
her  passenger  ships  are  second  to  none,  and 
her  foreign  connections  have,  it  must  be 
admitted,  in  part  justified  the  claim  that 
her  fleet  is  built  largely  for  the  protection  of 
her  overseas  trade. 

Moreover  Germans  are  valued  as  colonists 
everywhere :  in  America,  Canada,  South 
Africa,  Australia,  India.  But  for  the  numbers 
that  have  left  and  still  leave  the  Fatherland  to 
seek  wider  spheres  of  profit  or  utility  overseas, 
there  were  and  are  practically  no  districts 
under  the  German  flag  whither  they  could  go. 
It  is  estimated  that  there  are  some  15,000,000 
of  Germans  living  out  of  Europe,  and  not 
under  the  protection  of  the  German  flag. 
In  other  words,  Germany  has  an  expansive 
a 


98  GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

population  with  no  direction  for  that  expan- 
sion except  to  countries  where  the  emigrants 
are  lost  to  Germanism  and  the  Empire. 

The  present  possessions  of  the  Empire 
overseas  consist  of  Togo  and  Camerun  on  the 
west  coast  of  Africa  near  the  Equator ; 
South- West  Africa  (developed  from  the 
earliest  German  colony),  which  lies  between 
latitudes  fifteen  and  thirty,  and  has  recently 
increased  in  value  owing  to  the  discoveries 
of  diamonds ;  German  East  Africa,  wedged 
between  British  East  Africa  and  the  Portu- 
guese territory  ;  a  part  of  New  Guinea  (Kaiser 
Wilhelm  Land) ;  the  Carolines  and  Bismarck 
archipelago,  Samoa,  and  the  port  of  Kiaut- 
schou  in  China.  Of  the  parts  of  the  globe 
outside  Europe  where  German  organisation, 
German  enterprise,  and  German  money  have 
been  most  successfully  invested,  none  belongs 
to  the  Empire.  "  We  came  too  late  upon  the 
scene  ;  there  is  no  place  for  us  in  the  sun." 
That  is  the  common  complaint,  and  it  is 
easily  understandable.  That  the  adoption  of 
the  German  bureaucratic  system  for  colonial 
administration  has  not  proved  altogether  a 
success  is  a  fact  frequently  overlooked,  and  it 
is  perhaps  not  altogether  certain  that  German 
emigrants  and  German  capital  would  flow 
even  to  the  "  rich  places  of  the  earth  "  if 
they  were  administered  on  the  German 
domestic  plan.  It  is  possible  in  fact  that 


FUNCTIONS    OF   EMPIRE          99 

German  emigration  is  partly  encouraged  by 
the  desire  to  find  countries  where  bureaucratic 
organisation  is  less  perfect,  where  the  State  is 
less  all-important,  and  where  the  individual 
counts  a  little  more* 


CHAPTER   V 

BETWEEN    THE    STATE    AND    THE    INDIVIDUAL. 
THE    MUNICIPALITIES    AND     THEIR    WORK 

ACROSS  the  film  which,  one  may  suppose, 
represents  for  the  intelligent  newspaper  reader 
the  mind-picture  of  Berlin  composed  from 
scores  of  special  descriptions,  there  will  be 
doubtless  a  number  of  catch-words  and 
perennial  phrases  doing  duty  for  epigrammatic 
descriptions.  Berlin  is  the  "  Gay  City," 
Charlottenburg  (the  Kensington  of  Berlin) 
is  the  "Model  City,"  Moabit  is  the  "East 
End,"  with  no  slums,  very  few  foreigners, 
and  "  streets  you  could  eat  your  dinner 
from."  Most  of  these  phrases  do  little  justice 
to  Berlin,  and  less  to  the  other  cities  of  the 
Empire.  For  Berlin  has  not,  and  perhaps 
will  never  have,  that  light-heartedness,  that 
joie  de  vivre  which  was  once  thought  character- 
istic of  Paris,  and  is  occasionally  with  much 
injustice  attributed  to  Munich. 

It  is  by  the  accident  which  sooner  or  later 
overtakes  all  great  cities  that  the  temples 
of  pleasure  have  collected  in  the  neighbour- 
100 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES         101 

hood  of  the  Friedrichstrasse,  in  Berlin,  just 
as,  a  little  to  the  east  of  it,  there  is  growing  up 
a  real  "  city,"  a  business-man's  city  which  is 
not  or  is  only  to  a  very  small  extent  resi- 
dential. And  as  for  the  "  model  city," 
Charlottenburg,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
a  few  years  ago  her  great  boulevards  were 
potato-fields,  and  in  the  place  of  her  gorgeous 
balconied  flat-fronts  there  were  little  two- 
storied  country  houses  amongst  the  forest- 
trees  and  the  open  fields.  Berlin,  that  is 
Greater  Berlin,  grew  very  fast,  but  at  a  time 
when  municipal  problems  were  no  longer 
slowly  struggling  for  expression  and  from 
expression  to  solution.  It  was  possible  to 
foresee  many  municipal  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties, and  to  provide  for  them  (not  for  all 
but  for  many).  There  was,  or  ought  to  have 
been,  plenty  of  room  for  expansion  in  all 
directions,  at  any  rate  for  the  suburban 
municipalities  on  the  periphery,  and  the 
conception  of  municipal  town  planning  as 
opposed  to  haphazard  development  was  not 
entirely  new,  nor  was  there  any  lack  of  warn- 
ings against  the  doctrine  of  haphazard. 
Hence  if  the  term  "  model  city  "  must  be 
applied  to  Charlottenburg,  it  ought  only  to 
refer  to  Charlottenburg  as  a  model  for  other 
cities  built  under  similar  circumstances ; 
and  then  Charlottenburg  itself  would  admit 
that  the  designation  is  false. 


102          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

But  the  concentration  of  attention  on  Berlin 
and  its  suburbs  is  unjust  not  only  to  Berlin 
but  also  to  the  many  other  cities  of  the 
Empire  which  are  of  older  development  and 
yet  have  solved  their  municipal  problems 
with  no  less  success.  For  there  has  never 
been  such  a  concentration  of  intellectual, 
social,  and  economic  life  in  Berlin  as  there 
was  from  a  very  early  period  upon  London. 
The  division  of  the  country  into  a  number 
of  States  involved  the  slow  development 
of  the  capitals  of  these  States  in  the  early 
period,  gave  them  the  kudos  of  royal  or 
princely  capitals,  and  brought  to  them  the 
business  and  the  intellect  of  each  State  to  an 
extent  which  has  never  been  the  case  with 
the  great  provincial  towns  of  England.  Then 
account  must  also  be  taken  of  the  City-State 
development  in  the  Hansa  period  and  later. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Frankfurt  was 
a  free  City-State  until  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  just  as  Hamburg  and  Bremen  and 
Lubeck  still  are.  It  is  as  though  Dan  and 
Beersheba  had  existed  as  national  centres 
before  Jerusalem,  so  that  the  separatist  move- 
ment needed  only  to  insist  upon  their  priority 
and  greater  reputation. 

Moreover,  scarcely  any  great  city  of  Ger- 
many was  at  such  disadvantage  as  Berlin 
in  respect  of  drab  surroundings  and  difficult 
approach.  Set  in  a  flat  plain  and  surrounded 


THE    MUNICIPALITIES  103 

by  a  wilderness  of  pine-trees  and  sand  relieved 
only  by  desert  lakes,  the  capital  of  Prussia 
has  not  retained  the  incense-smell  of  venerable 
antiquity  which  attaches  to  Cologne  or 
Frankfurt  or  Munich  or  Hanover  :  it  is  a  new 
city,  and  the  paint  is  not  yet  dry.  Its  growth 
was  only  rendered  possible  by  the  extension 
of  the  railway  system  and  the  development 
of  the  rapid  trade-route  eastwards  to  Russia. 
It  is  not,  and  perhaps  it  can  never  be,  an 
international  centre  like  Paris,  and  it  will 
perhaps  never  attain  a  national  importance 
or  dignity  such  as  London  has  possessed  for 
ages.  Dresden  and  Munich  will  perhaps 
always  be  its  too  successful  rivals  in  the 
domain  of  art,  Frankfurt  and  Hamburg  in  the 
domain  of  trade  and  business. 

It  follows  that  there  is  far  less  justification 
for  treating  Berlin  as  representative  of  German 
municipal  methods  than  there  is  for  a  similar 
treatment  of  London.  Berlin  has  no  garden 
city  that  can  compare  at  present  with  Dres- 
den's Hellerau  ;  the  two  best  newspapers  in 
Germany  are  not  published  in  Berlin  at  all ; 
and  at  present  she  has  neither  the  best  opera- 
house  nor  the  finest  galleries,  and  architectur- 
ally it  would  perhaps  scarcely  be  too  much 
to  say  that  she  is  hardly  even  second-rate. 
But  it  cannot  be  denied  to  her  that  she 
stands  in  the  front  row  as  regards  the  growth 
of  municipal  science.  It  is  true  that  she  does 


104         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

not  own  her  own  tramways  or  her  own  electric 
lighting  service,  she  is  not  an  administrative 
unity,  nor  are  her  rates  uniform  throughout 
her  borders.  But  municipalism  in  Germany 
generally  is  gradually  taking  its  place  as  the 
connecting  link  between  the  State  and  the 
individual :  municipalities  have  developed  a 
Beamtenschaft,  which  causes  them  to  be  ranged 
sometimes  as  bureaucratic  organs,  but  they 
have  remained  democratic  in  their  essence, 
as  is  sufficiently  seen  by  the  opposition  to 
municipal  developments  on  the  part  of  the 
feudal  Prussian  Government  and  its  adminis- 
trative and  executive  officials.  That  opposi- 
tion is  summed  up  in  the  single  phrase, 
"  Berlin  is  too  democratic  for  the  Junkers." 
The  city  of  Berlin  itself  has  been  surrounded 
by  a  number  of  satellite  towns,  Charlotten- 
burg,  Wilmersdorf,  Schoneberg,  and  so  .forth, 
which  have  swallowed  the  space  which  should 
have  been  available  for  Berlin  development. 
They  have  become  the  residential  quarters, 
and  have  left  to  Berlin  the  poor,  who  must 
live  near  factories  and  workshops,  and  the 
officials,  who  retain  their  official  residences. 
Gradually  Berlin  is  becoming  a  city  of  a  few 
thousand  permanent  inhabitants,  and  vast 
hordes  of  daily  visitors.  Her  municipal  re- 
quirements are  heavier  than  those  of  her 
suburban  satellites,  but  she  dare  not  make 
her  municipal  taxation  heavier  than  theirs 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES          105 

because  the  result  would  be  to  drive  capital 
out  to  the  periphery,  and  that  process  is 
developing  too  fast  already.  Efforts  to 
equalize  taxation  throughout  the  group  of 
municipalities  have  hitherto  failed.  One 
suburb  has  recently  raised  the  percentage  of 
municipal  taxation  to  110  per  cent,  of  the 
income-tax,  a  course  which  Berlin  would  like 
to  adopt  but  dare  not.  Grunewald,  which 
has  few  poor  and  many  rich  residents  with 
private  houses,  raises  only  some  65  per  cent.  ; 
Charlottenburg,  which  was  able  to  expand 
into  the  forest-land,  has  brighter  houses  and 
broader  boulevards ;  elsewhere  one  suburb 
after  another  possesses  advantages  which 
Berlin  does  not  possess,  and  perhaps  now 
never  can  obtain. 

But  Greater  Berlin  has  not  succeeded  in 
developing  a  unity  out  of  its  plurality,  nor 
in  distributing  the  burdens  and  the  advantages 
over  the  whole  congeries  of  municipalities. 
In  other  words  she  has  not  succeeded  in 
achieving,  any  more  than  has  London,  a  true 
communal  solidarity.  The  Zweckverband, 
an  intermunicipal  association  for  the  discussion 
and  protection  of  common  interests,  has  had 
perhaps  too  little  time  as  yet  to  develop  its 
full  efficacy,  and  it  may  prove  the  germ  of 
later  solidarity,  but  it  does  not  receive  its 
fair  measure  of  Government  support,  and 
there  are  plenty  of  signs  that  governmental 


106         GERMANY   OF  TO-DAY 

jealousy  of  the  more  democratic  municipalities 
is  not  on  the  wane.  Perhaps  it  is  hardly  even 
a  good  sign  that  in  the  attempt  to  propitiate 
the  State  Government,  one  municipality  after 
another  is  appointing  as  its  chief  magistrate 
an  ex-official  of  the  bureaucratic  State  system. 
The  attempt  of  the  Association  to  secure  for 
the  city  in  perpetuity  the  band  of  forest  and 
lake  which  is  one  of  its  few  charms,  and 
perhaps  one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  its  healthy 
character,  is  met  by  the  Treasury,  to  whom  the 
forest  belongs,  in  a  spirit  which  can  only 
be  called  unduly  grudging ;  the  price  asked 
for  the  small  portion  of  the  forest  which  is  to 
be  bought  and  preserved  by  the  city  was  at 
the  outset  prohibitive,  and  even  as  amended 
(it  is  said  by  the  intervention  of  the  Emperor), 
the  price  is  absurd,  if  it  be  considered  that  the 
development  of  the  Imperial  capital  on 
rational  lines  ought  to  be  the  first  care  of  the 
Government. 

It  would  almost  appear  that  the  growth  of 
Berlin,  perhaps  of  towns  generally,  is  con- 
sidered by  the  Prussian  bureaucratic  system 
as  a  dangerous  democratic  threat  which  must 
be  checked  as  far  as  possible.  But  if  the 
municipalities  thus  tend  to  represent  a 
democratic  tendency,  especially  in  Prussia, 
where  democracy  is  otherwise  almost  without 
representation  of  any  kind,  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  municipal  bodies  are  elected  upon  a 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES          107 

democratic  basis.  The  origin  of  the  local 
government  system  in  Prussia  has  already 
been  sketched  above,  but  it  should  be  added 
here  that  the  mayors  of  German  towns  are 
not  annually  elected  honorary  officials,  but 
paid  officers,  often  very  highly  paid,  chosen 
as  a  rule  by  the  Town  Council  for  a  period  of 
twelve  years.  Their  appointment  must,  how- 
ever, be  ratified  by  the  King  of  Prussia, 
and  it  may  be  remembered  that  there  were 
great  searchings  of  heart  in  Berlin  not  many 
years  ago  owing  to  the  non-ratification  for 
many  months  of  the  former  chief  Burgomaster 
Herr  Kirschner.  The  reason  was  commonly 
believed  to  lie  in  the  opposition  of  the  city  of 
Berlin  to  certain  royal  ideas  concerning 
town-planning  and  architectural  develop- 
ments. 

The  Town  Councils  are  not  themselves 
purely  democratic  bodies,  for  they  are  elected, 
in  Prussia  at  any  rate,  on  a  ballot  which 
resembles  the  Prussian  governmental  electoral 
system  and  thus  tend  to  be  measurably 
oligarchical.  They  are,  however,  forced  by 
the  nature  of  the  Government  into  a  demo- 
cratic attitude,  which  retains  for  them  a  great 
measure  of  public  sympathy.  Municipal 
executives  are  almost  always  highly  trained 
and  well  paid  officials,  for  amateurism  is  as 
little  tolerated  here  as  in  other  spheres  of 
public  life. 


108         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

The  actual  growth  of  German  cities  has 
been  chiefly  fostered,  of  course,  by  the 
growth  and  concentration  of  industry.  Thus 
Diisseldorf  is  purely  an  industrial  town,  and 
it  has  perhaps  the  most  extensive  development 
of  municipal  activities.  Chemnitz,  Plauen, 
Essen,  Elberfeld,  Duisburg,  and  others 
equally  owe  their  development  almost  entirely 
to  industry.  Breslau  and  Berlin  amongst 
others  may  be  held  to  have  developed  partly 
through  railway  connections.  In  the  case  of 
the  former  the  seat  of  Prussian  and  imperial 
government  has  naturally  attracted  population 
from  the  large  agricultural  districts  eastwards, 
and  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  stated  that 
only  about  one-quarter  of  the  population  of 
Berlin  are  natives  of  the  city. 

Apart  from  the  industrial  and  other  causes 
which  tend  to  increase  the  population  of 
German  towns  at  the  expense  of  the  country 
(at  present  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  population 
of  Germany  lives  in  towns  with  more  than 
100,000  inhabitants),  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  concentration  of  troops  in  towns 
tends  to  withdraw  the  time-expired  men 
permanently  from  the  country.  An  estimate 
recently  formed  by  an  agricultural  paper  that 
the  country  loses  nearly  100,000  able-bodied 
men  annually  to  the  towns  as  the  result  of 
the  non-return  of  time-expired  soldiery  to 
the  villages  would  appear  to  be  too  high, 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES          109 

and  a  reliable  estimate  is  not  available,  but 
it  is  clearly  true  that  the  conscript  system 
has  an  important  effect  in  this  direction ; 
hence  efforts  are  now  being  made  in  the  army 
to  prevent  this  land-desertion  after  the  two 
years'  service,  by  giving  agricultural  lectures 
and  other  forms  of  suggestive  education  to 
the  men. 

Under  a  paternal  form  of  Government  such 
as  exists  in  German  States,  it  is  natural  that 
the  undertaking  of  local  public  services  by  the 
municipalities,  and,  in  consequence,  also  the 
development  of  municipal  enterprise,  should 
meet  with  less  opposition  than  in  countries 
where  individual  enterprise  has  at  all  times 
been  the  main  factor  in  progress.  Hence 
it  is  found  natural  that  German  cities  should 
own  their  own  electric  supplies,  their  gasworks, 
tramways,  waterworks,  certain  forms  of 
educational  institutions,  should  construct 
canals  and  canal -harbours  (as  in  the  case  of 
Treptow  and  Berlin),  and  especially  should 
undertake  elaborate  projects  for  the  extension 
of  buildings  on  carefully  laid  plans,  themselves 
purchasing  land  for  the  purpose,  and  attending 
to  its  rational  development.  Berlin,  however, 
does  not  own  its  own  tramways,  for  the  huge 
tramway  company  called  the  Grosser  Berliner 
is  a  private  concern  with  a  virtual  monopoly  ; 
but  its  contract  involves  the  payment  to  the 
municipality  of  eight  per  cent,  of  the  gross 


110         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

proceeds,  and  six  per  cent,  of  the  net  profit 
on  any  fresh  capital  invested.  The  muni- 
cipality reserves  to  itself  the  right  to  regulate 
fares,  which  are  fixed  uniformly  at  ten 
pfennigs  (about  five  farthings)  for  each  trip, 
and  for  any  distance  within  the  radius. 
Similarly  the  Berlin  electrical  company  pays 
to  the  town  ten  per  cent,  of  its  gross  proceeds 
and  fifty  per  cent,  of  all  clear  profit  exceeding 
four  per  cent,  of  the  capital.  The  muni- 
cipality has  an  agreement  for  the  supply 
of  the  town  lamps  with  power  at  fixed  rates, 
and  has  also  a  control  over  the  general  rates 
charged  to  the  public  by  the  company  both 
for  lighting  and  power  purposes. 

Amongst  the  strictly  municipal  enterprises 
should  be  mentioned  the  excellent  public 
swimming  and  other  baths,  disinfecting  estab- 
lishments, rubbish  destructors,  the  great 
establishment  for  destruction  of  bad  meat 
in  the  open  country  near  Bodelschwing's 
well-known  labour  colony,  a  canal-port  and 
so  forth.  Between  1877  and  1881  the  city 
of  Berlin  constructed  its  own  slaughter-house, 
connecting  it  with  the  railway  and  fitting  it 
with  the  latest  appliances.  The  law  which 
authorises  communities  to  establish  slaugh- 
ter-houses provides  that  the  fees  charged  for 
butchers'  pay  and  inspection  shall  not  be 
higher  than  is  sufficient  to  amortize  the 
original  outlay  at  one  per  cent.,  pay  the 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES          111 

interest  at  five  per  cent.,  and  also  cover  the 
costs  of  maintenance.  Meat  passed  through 
the  Berlin  slaughter-house  is  "  unbedingt  tau- 
glich,"  that  is,  it  is  free  of  all  possible  taint 
and  is  so  stamped.  Meat  that  is  partially 
fit  for  food  or  that  can  be  made  so  without 
danger  to  health  is  sold  to  the  poor  at  muni- 
cipal establishments  called  the  "  Frei-Banke." 
The  meat  sold  at  these  establishments,  which 
are  now  a  feature  of  most  of  the  great  German 
cities,  is  specially  treated  under  steam, 
and  then  sold  at  very  low  rates  at  certain 
hours  on  three  or  four  days  in  each  week. 
Purchasers  have  no  choice  of  meat,  for  they 
must  take  what  is  offered  to  them,  hence  the 
last  comers  may  receive  little  more  than  bones, 
though  efforts  are,  of  course,  made  to  distribute 
the  available  meat  in  fair  portions.  The 
covered  market-halls  of  Berlin  have  not  proved 
very  successful.  Intended  originally  for  coun- 
try salesmen,  they  have  gradually  deteriorated 
and  many  of  them  have  been  closed  owing  to 
more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  stalls  being  un- 
occupied. The  open-air  markets,  particularly 
the  two  on  the  confines  of  Charlottenburg, 
are  extremely  well  patronized,  especially  for 
vegetables,  eggs,  live  fish,  and  fruit,  the 
difference  between  the  prices  on  the  open 
retail  market  and  those  of  the  small  green- 
grocers' shops  being  often  very  marked. 
The  result  is,  of  course,  a  constant  effort  on 


112         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

the  part  of  the  small  shopkeepers  to  secure 
their  abolition. 

Many  German  municipalities  have  recently 
opened  halls  for  the  sale  on  certain  days  of 
fresh  fish  and,  more  recently  still,  of  imported 
foreign  meat.  These  ventures  have  proved 
eminently  successful,  and,  on  the  whole, 
popular,  though  the  sale  of  foreign  meat  is 
still  only  a  temporary  measure  limited  by  the 
period  set  to  the  facilities  offered  for  the 
purpose  by  the  Government.  Some  South- 
German  cities  have  also  recently  entered 
into  contracts  with  German  cattle-farmers 
for  the  direct  supply  of  meat  with  the  object 
of  excluding  the  middlemen's  profits,  or 
perhaps  of  testing  the  truth  of  the  assertion 
that  these  middle  profits  are  the  prime 
cause  of  the  high  price  of  meat  throughout 
the  Empire.  It  is  natural,  perhaps,  that 
these  measures  of  the  communities  for  reliev- 
ing the  effects  of  the  high  prices  of  food-stuffs 
do  not  meet  with  the  approval  of  local 
butchers  and  other  purveyors,  but  the  opposi- 
tion is  spasmodic  and  not  very  effective. 

Both  the  gas  and  water  supply  of  Berlin, 
as  of  several  other  German  cities,  are  prim- 
arily due  to  the  enterprise  of  English  com- 
panies in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century. 
German  industry  at  the  time  lacked  all 
experience  in  the  provision  of  gas  plants, 
so  that  from  1826  until  1847  there  was  no 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES          113 

municipal  gas  supply  in  Berlin.  In  the  latter 
year  two  municipal  gasworks  were  opened, 
with  the  result  that  the  English  company 
exactly  halved  its  rates  (from  35.3  to  17.7 
pfennige  per  cubic  metre).  There  are  now 
several  additional  municipal  works,  providing 
altogether  about  four-fifths  of  the  gas  supply 
of  the  city  at  a  price  of  rather  more  than  three 
halfpence  per  cubic  metre.  The  Berlin  water- 
works company  established  by  Messrs.  Fox 
and  Crampton  began  to  supply  water  in 
1856,  buf  the  plant  was  purchased  by  the 
Government  in  1873,  and  handed  over  to  the 
city.  Large  new  works  were  subsequently 
constructed  to  take  water  from  the  neigh- 
bouring lakes,  and  the  two  principal  works 
yield  now  about  300,000  cubic  metres  per  day. 
Some  of  the  Berlin  suburbs,  however,  are 
still  supplied  with  water  by  a  private  company 
taking  water  from  the  Havel  and  from  the 
lakes  in  the  Grunewald.  Owing  to  the  drying 
up  of  these  lakes  the  company  has  now  been 
obliged  to  undertake  to  refill  them  by  pumping 
water  from  the  Havel  into  them,  but  it  is 
manifest  that  the  water-level  in  the  Berlin 
area  is  rapidly  sinking,  and  it  would  appear 
that  at  some  time  in  the  near  future  the 
growth  of  the  city  will  involve  the  bringing 
of  water  from  a  much  greater  distance. 

In  Cologne,  to  take  one  contrasting  instance, 
all  the  public  services  are  now  controlled  by 


114         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

the  municipality,  which  paid,  for  example, 
over  half  a  million  to  secure  the  cancelling 
of  the  tramway  concession.  The  town  also 
took  over  the  gasworks  from  the  English 
company,  and  has  its  own  electricity  and 
waterworks,  the  water  being  obtained  from 
springs  in  the  Rhine  valley.  Like  other 
cities  of  Prussia,  Cologne  recently  purchased 
from  the  Government  the  site  of  the  old 
fortifications,  and  the  extension  of  the  city 
in  this  manner  was  controlled  by  the  muni- 
cipality itself.  The  slaughter-house,  which 
cost  nearly  £500,000,  is  usually  described 
as  a  "  model,"  with  some  right  to  the  term. 
The  necessary  funds  appear  to  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  Government  at  a  very  low 
rate  of  interest.  Like  Berlin,  Cologne  pays 
particular  attention  to  matters  of  education, 
and  its  Municipal  High  School  of  Commerce 
is  a  valuable  foundation.  Reference  to  muni- 
cipal attention  to  education  in  general  will 
be  found  in  the  chapter  on  education,  which 
follows. 

One  feature  of  municipal  enterprise  which 
is  perhaps  as  characteristic  as  any  other  in 
Germany,  is  the  promotion  of  dramatic 
and  particularly  of  operatic  art.  Probably 
the  finest  municipal  opera-house  in  Germany 
is  that  which  has  just  been  opened  in  Charlot- 
tenburg.  It  is  a  very  handsome  building 
outwardly  and  inwardly,  and  it  is  fitted  not 


THE    MUNICIPALITIES  115 

only  with  all  the  latest  appliances,  such  as  the 
Fortuny  system  of  lighting,  and  the  Fortunj' 
permanent  "  sky,"  but  it  has  also  a  stage 
system  which  is  an  improvement  on  the 
revolving  stage,  and  appears  destined  to 
replace  it  in  all  new  theatres.  The  stage  is 
threefold,  that  is  to  say,  there  are  three  spaces 
of  equal  magnitude,  in  the  centre  (the  actual 
stage)  and  at  the  two  sides.  A  stage  set  is 
prepared  at  the  right  of  the  acting  stage 
whilst  the  scene  is  in  progress  :  the  set  just 
utilised  is  then  rolled  off  to  the  left,  and  the 
new  set  appears  from  the  right.  The  prices 
are  low  and  the  house  always  well  filled. 
The  municipal  opera-house  of  Cologne,  to 
take  an  earlier  example,  cost  £180,000  with 
fittings  and  stage  equipment.  Municipal 
theatres  throughout  Germany  maintain  a 
high  tone  in  their  productions,  and  the  best 
works  of  contemporary  dramatists,  as  well 
as  Shakespearean  and  other  classical  dramas, 
form  a  regular  feature  of  their  seasons. 

In  general,  the  municipalities  control  trading 
hours  indirectly  through  the  police.  Some 
sixty  towns  now  insist  on  an  eight  p.m. 
closing  time  for  all  shops  except  restaurants, 
cafes,  and  the  like,  but  there  is  not  as  yet  a 
uniform  hour  for  the  closing  of  shops.  For 
instance,  whilst  some  towns  still  permit 
certain  kinds  of  trading  on  Sundays  between 
twelve  and  two,  others  have  confined  such 


116         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

trading  to  the  hours  from  eight  to  ten. 
Charlottenburg  has  recently  determined  to 
introduce  a  final  closing  hour  for  restaurants, 
caf^s,  and  places  of  entertainment  at  two 
a.m.,  and  it  is  suggested  that  Berlin  may 
follow  suit.  The  proposal  has  been  subjected 
to  criticism  on  the  ground  that  the  chief 
attraction  for  foreigners  to  Berlin  is  the  gay 
life  of  its  cabarets,  cafes,  and  bars,  which 
really  begins  at  about  London's  closing  time. 
But  the  municipalities  are  gradually  coming 
to  insist  upon  the  somewhat  elementary  fact 
that  "  all-night  gaiety,"  especially  to  the 
extent  to  which  it  has  been  carried  in  Berlin, 
where  whole  boulevards  once  occupied  by 
respectable  residents  are  now  stigmatized 
by  rows  of  doubtful  night  bars  and  more  than 
doubtful  night  sojourners,  cannot  ultimately 
be  a  recommendation  to  a  town,  and  it  is 
dawning  upon  Berliners  themselves  that  the 
town  must  lose  as  a  residential  city  in  pro- 
portion as  it  increases  through  such  dubious 
means  its  supposed  attraction  for  foreigners. 

It  has  already  been  suggested  that  German 
municipalities,  no  less  than  those  of  other 
countries,  have  recently  turned  their  attention 
to  an  increasing  extent  to  the  question  of 
their  own  development  on  sane  lines  and 
especially,  of  course,  to  the  provision  of 
healthy  dwellings  for  the  poorer  classes  of  the 
population.  Foreign  visitors  to  large  German. 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES  117 

cities,  especially  to  those  of  great  recent 
growth,  are  apt  to  be  struck  first  by  the 
scrupulous  cleanliness,  the  width  and,  as  a 
rule,  the  airy  appearance  of  the  boulevards, 
the  fine  frontage  of  the  houses  with  their  tiers 
of  richly  beflowered  balconies  and  big  front 
windows  facing  upon  streets  lined  with  trees 
or  upon  squares  bright  with  flower-beds  and 
plots  of  carefully  kept  grass.  They  lavish 
encomiums  upon  the  municipalities  which 
clean  the  streets,  pave  the  roads,  maintain 
the  gardens  and  parks,  and  in  general  provide 
this  aspect  and  impression  of  health,  wealth 
and  cleanliness.  Then,  we  will  suppose, 
such  a  visitor  seeks  a  permanent  home  in  the 
city.  Unless  he  can  pay  prices  which  may 
vary  from  £100  to  £200  or  more  (without 
municipal  taxes,  which,  as  explained  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  are  levied  upon  income-tax) 
he  will  find  that  he  cannot  obtain  any  of  the 
flats  in  the  fine  buildings  looking  upon  the 
boulevards,  the  light  and  airy  rooms  are  not 
for  him,  but  he  will  be  obliged  to  content 
himself  with  small  rooms  looking  upon  a  back 
courtyard,  frequently  dark,  not  always,  or 
indeed  often,  any  too  well  provided  with  fresh 
air,  and  subject  to  that  chief  infliction  of  the 
German  "  barrack-houses,"  as  they  are  con- 
temptuously called,  the  beating  of  innumer- 
able carpets  within  that  courtyard  twice  a 
week  from  eight  to  twelve  or  longer. 


J18         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

He  will  find  that  the  new  houses  whose 
beflowered  balconies  he  has  so  much  admired 
are  frequently  jerry-built,  so  that  a  type- 
writer on  the  third  floor  is  a  daily  infliction 
to  the  tenant  of  the  ground-floor  and  of  course 
all  between.  In  a  word  he  will  arrive  at  the 
conclusion  that  he  does  not  get  for  his  fifty, 
sixty,  or  seventy  pounds  per  annum  anything 
like  as  much  comlort  as  he  could  obtain  for  a 
similar  sum  in  London.  Now  he  will  abandon 
any  idea  of  living  within  reasonable  distance 
of  his  work  in  the  city,  and  will  seek  a  less 
expensive  home  outside.  He  will  find  first 
that  means  of  communication  are  infinitely 
less  well  developed  than  in  the  suburbs  of  any 
first-rate  English  town,  because  the  Prussian 
railways  have  not  the  same  interest  as  private 
companies  in  developing  suburban  property. 
Moreover  he  will  find  in  his  suburb  exactly 
the  same  structural  features  that  he  has 
admired  and  later  criticized  in  Berlin.  He 
will  find  prices  very  little  lower,  and  in  some 
cases  actually  higher,  and  there  will  be  the 
same  choice  of  expensive  front  flats  or  less 
expensive,  and  very  much  less  desirable  flats 
upon  the  yards  or  courts  euphoniously  termed 
"  gardens." 

Let  him  now  consider  where,  under  such 
circumstances,  must  live  those  families  which 
cannot  afford  the  daily  train  journey  and 
must  confine  themselves  to  districts  within  easy 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES  119 

reach  of  their  working-place  by  means  of  the 
rather  slow  tramway  service  (for  the  enormous 
increase  of  the  tramway  service  and  the 
resultant  concentration  from  the  suburban 
towns  upon  the  city  has,  of  course,  resulted 
in  tram-congestion  and  slowness  of  service). 
Exactly  the  same  type  of  house,  but  without 
the  stucco  front  and  the  gorgeous  balconies, 
and  with  not  one  "  garden-house  "  but  two 
or  three  Hofe  (inner  courts),  one  behind  the 
other,  greet  his  eyes  in  the  north  and  east  of 
Berlin.  The  darkness  and  the  airlessness,  and 
the  dust  and  the  noise  are  multiplied,  and  he 
will  ask  himself  whether  on  the  whole  the 
clean  streets  can  make  up  for  the  gloomy 
interior.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that 
the  flat-system  of  Berlin  and  other  great 
German  cities  has  been,  tried  and  found 
hopelessly  wanting.  The  cause  of  it  we  shall 
consider  presently,  but  our  presumptive 
visitor,  bearing  in  mind  the  character  of  all 
kinds  of  Berlin  habitations,  and  contrasting 
them,  if  he  will,  with  those  "  long,  desolate 
rows  of  uniform  blocks  of  little  houses " 
which  depress  the  foreign  visitor  as  the  train 
bears  him  into  London,  may  do  well  in  this 
light  to  consider  the  following  figures 
regarding  the  dwellings  of  Berlin  and  London 
respectively. 

In  Berlin  and  Charlottenburg  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century  over  half  the  total  number 


120         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

of  dwellings  were  yard-dwellings.  There  were 
then  in  Berlin  24,000  cellar  dwellings  with 
about  120,000  inhabitants,  and  there  were 
about  90,000  attic  dwellings  (that  is  fourth 
floor  or  higher),  and  their  inhabitants  num- 
bered about  one-fifth  of  the  entire  population 
of  the  city.  At  the  time  of  the  last  official 
enquiry  there  were  in  Berlin  roughly  30,000 
single  heatable  rooms  occupied  each  of  them 
permanently  by  six  or  more  people.  In  most 
cases  they  were  also  small  rooms,  for  the  rule 
is  that  "  the  smaller  the  dwelling  the  smaller 
the  air  space  of  each  room."  It  may  be 
added  that  in  Berlin  the  average  price  for  one 
heatable  room  was  rather  more  than  £11 
per  annum,  and  the  price  in  the  suburb  of 
Wilmersdorf  for  one  unbeatable  room  was 
£13  per  annum. 

In  London  (1905)  six  per  cent,  of  the 
population  lived  in  "  dwellings, "  of  one 
room :  in  Berlin  41  per  cent,  lived  thus,  and 
an  additional  one  per  cent,  in  rooms  which 
could  not  be  heated  at  all.  In  London  15 
per  cent,  lived  in  dwellings  of  two  rooms,  in 
Berlin  33  per  cent.  In  London  46  per  cent, 
lived  in  houses  having  four  or  more  rooms, 
in  Berlin  only  12  per  cent.  Further  the 
average  weekly  rent  paid  by  the  German 
workman  in  towns  was  in  the  aforesaid  year 
nearly  25  per  cent,  higher  than  that  of  the 
English  workman  (Vorwaerts,  July  2,  1912, 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES  121 

Board  of  Trade  Enquiry,  London,  1908-1911). 
It  is  not  therefore  surprising  to  learn  on  the 
authority  of  the  Prussian  Minister  of  the 
Interior  that  the  birth-rate  in  Prussian  towns 
is  rapidly  decreasing ;  in  Berlin  the  decrease  is 
greater  than  anywhere  else  in  Germany. 
The  problem  was  thus  stated  by  the  North 
German  Gazette  in  its  official  commentary 
(June  23,  1912) :  "  It  is  only  necessary  to 
consider  the  housing  conditions  in  our  great 
towns,  where  many  house-owners  make 
childlessness  or  a  small  family  a  condition  of 
the  lease,  to  understand  the  difficulties  which 
face  a  family  with  many  children  at  every  turn. 
It  is  clear  that  the  housing  problem,  as  diffi- 
cult as  it  is  important,  bears  a  great  share 
of  the  responsibility  for  the  decrease  in  the 
birthrate." 

Berlin's  special  problem,  that  of  the 
"  barrack-flats  "  and  the  growing  desire  to 
return  at  any  rate  in  some  measure  to  the 
small-house  system,  especially  for  workmen's 
cottages,  is  due  in  great  part  to  the  unsound 
land  speculation  which  has  developed  with  the 
growth  of  the  city.  The  value  of  land  in 
Berlin  has  increased  since  the  foundation  of 
the  Empire  approximately  200  per  cent,  on 
an  average,  that  is  from  about  ten  shillings 
per  square  foot  to  thirty  shillings,  and  a  great 
deal  of  this  increase  is  due  to  speculation  upon 
the  continuous  growth  of  the  city.  Building- 


122         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

land  is  driven  to  a  price  at  which  normal 
building  conditions  can  no  longer  pay,  and 
even  outside  the  periphery  it  becomes  necess- 
ary to  crowd  the  maximum  number  of 
families  paying  rent  upon  the  same  plot  of 
ground.  The  police  and  the  building-laws 
place  a  limit  upon  the  number  of  floors 
which  may  be  constructed  and  oppose  a  sane 
veto  to  the  oft-repeated  proposal  to  institute 
a  system  of  sky-scrapers  on  the  model  of 
New  York,  but  it  is  left  to  the  municipalities 
to  check  the  evil  which  already  exists. 

Speculation  was  not  checked  at  the  outset 
by  legislation,  partly  because  municipalities 
were  still  obsessed  by  the  doctrine  of 
laissez  faire  (for  example,  the  otherwise  very 
advanced  building  provisions  of  Chemnitz 
in  1885  prescribe  that  each  house  must  have 
a  courtyard,  but  they  do  not  state  how  big 
the  courtyard  must  be  !),  and  also  by  the 
fact  that  the  Town  Councils  were,  and  have 
remained  democratic  only  by  contrast,  and 
not  by  constitution.  The  speculative  element 
has  and  had  a  large  influence  on  the  Councils. 
Town  councillors,  as  already  mentioned,  are 
elected  on  the  three-class  system,  which 
gives  members  of  the  first  or  richest  class  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  times  the  voting  power 
of  the  poorest  or  third  class. 

The  study  of  the  problem  is  a  very  special 
one,  and  can  be  no  more  than  suggested 


THE    MUNICIPALITIES  123 

within  the  compass  of  this  chapter.  To  some 
extent  it  is  possible  that  the  evil  will  provide 
its  own  remedy.  "  The  trees  will  not  be 
permitted  to  grow  up  to  heaven,"  says  a 
German  proverb,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
the  process  of  development  of  Berlin  will 
receive  a  check  just  because  ground  is  becom- 
ing so  dear  that  employers  can  scarcely  any 
longer  consider  the  construction  of  factories 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Berlin.  In  fact,  in 
recent  years  there  has  developed  a  tendency 
for  factories  to  be  removed  altogether  from 
Berlin  to  districts  where  ground  is  compara- 
tively inexpensive,  but  communications 
reasonably  good.  The  development  of  Berlin 
will  doubtless  be  in  the  direction  of  a  trade 
and  business  centre,  but  probably  not  along 
industrial  lines. 

The  cities  themselves,  not  only  Berlin 
and  the  great  industrial  towns  of  Westphalia, 
but  the  majority  of  large  German  towns,  have 
adopted  three  means  to  regulate  the  housing 
problem ;  first  by  developing  a  system  of 
municipal  house-agencies  ;  these  existed  at 
the  end  of  1909  in  fifteen  large  towns,  whereof 
Stuttgart,  Barmen  and  Elberfeld  published 
their  own  house-lists  ;  secondly  by  house  or 
lodgings  inspections,  which  as  a  municipal 
undertaking  is  yet  too  new  for  there  to 
exist  any  body  of  evidence  as  to  its  results. 
Charlottenburg  has  recently  commenced  an 


124          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

inspection  of  small  dwellings  on  lines  character- 
istically thorough  and  unsensational.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  present  year  the  Prussian 
Diet  passed  on  first  reading  a  bill  providing 
for  the  establishment  of  such  inspectorates, 
called  in  the  law  "  Office  for  housing  accommo- 
dation." Berlin  and  Charlottenburg  have 
already  arranged  for  female  inspectors,  whilst 
at  Worms  and  Halle  female  inspectors  have 
already  presented  their  first  annual  reports. 
The  Worms  report  observes  that  the  personal 
influence  of  the  inspector  in  persuading  the 
inmates  of  small  dwellings  to  "  keep  the 
windows  open  and  the  sinks  clean,"  is  of 
prime  importance. 

In  the  main,  German  States  have  only 
followed  at  considerable  distance  institutions 
and  regulations  for  the  inspection  of  dwellings 
developed  in  England  after  the  establishment 
of  sanitary  inspectors  in  1875.  Hesse  was 
the  first  to  introduce  female  inspectors,  and 
Bavaria  introduced  early  a  central  Govern- 
ment inspectorate.  The  Kingdom  of  Wiirttem- 
berg  made  the  establishment  of  local  in- 
spectorates compulsory  for  all  communities 
(towns  and  villages)  of  more  than  1000 
inhabitants. 

The  thirdmethod  is,  of  course,  the  municipal 
purchase  of  land,  and  either  the  direct  or 
mediate  construction  of  suitable  workmen's 
dwellings,  and  the  exclusion  thereby  of  the 


THE   MUNICIPALITIES          125 

reckless  ground  speculator.  In  general  the 
Governments  of  the  German  States  encourage 
and  perhaps  do  their  best  to  assist  this  form  of 
municipal  undertaking,  but  it  would  appear, 
as  has  already  been  observed,  that  Berlin 
is  not  given  all  the  assistance  that  she  might 
be  entitled  to  expect  in  her  efforts  in  this 
direction,  and  the  Treasury,  which  owns 
much  of  the  land  in  the  neighbourhood,  has 
on  more  than  one  occasion  shown  a  spirit 
which  the  Berlin  city  fathers  have  described 
as  oppositional.  A  large  section  of  open 
ground  belonging  to  the  War  Office  and  former- 
ly used  as  the  principal  military  parade- 
ground  has  recently  been  built  over,  but 
there  were  disagreeable  discussions  at  the 
time  of  the  sale,  in  which  the  War  Office  was 
made  to  appear  in  a  light  which  could  hardly 
be  described  as  socially  beneficent. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  enumerate  or  even 
to  sketch  the  various  efforts  made  by  German 
communes  to  provide  cheap  and  healthy 
dwellings  for  the  working-class  of  their 
population.  The  Governments  themselves 
make  efforts  to  provide  to  some  extent  for 
their  own  employees.  For  example,  the 
Prussian  railway  administration  spent  over 
two  millions  sterling  in  six  years  for  this 
purpose :  the  imperial  Home  Office  spent 
nearly  as  much,  the  Mining  Department  spent 
one  million,  and  so  forth.  Building  societies 


126         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

receive  encouragement  in  their  efforts  to 
provide  suitable  dwellings,  and  their 
expenditure  is  on  the  increase  :  the  insurance 
departments  and  committees  are  constantly 
extending  their  efforts  in  the  same  direction, 
and  the  figures  of  the  imperial  Statistical  Office 
give  the  amount  spent  by  them  on  those  lines 
between  1900  and  1906  as  approximately 
£40,000,000. 

Many  German  towns  have  built  two- 
family  houses  for  their  own  and  also  for  local 
workmen,  not  in  municipal  employ  :  Breslau, 
Kiel,  Frankfurt,  Mannheim,  and  many  others 
could  be  mentioned  in  this  connection. 
Diisseldorf  has  invested  nearly  three-quarters 
of  a  million  in  land  which  it  employs  largely 
for  the  purpose  of  workmen's  dwellings, 
either  constructed  by  the  city  itself  or  under 
the  most  scrupulous  safeguards  by  lessees. 
Metz  also  builds  workmen's  dwellings  on  its 
own  account,  Duisburg  has  about  fifty  State- 
built  cottages  for  families  with  many  children. 
(One  of  the  oldest  municipal  foundations  for 
workmen  was  the  Cite*  Ouvriere,  of  Miilhausen, 
in  Alsace,  commenced  in  about  1853  with  the 
assistance  of  Napoleon  the  Third,  but  the 
buildings  have  since  fallen  into  speculative 
hands,  and  no  longer  fulfil  their  original 
purpose.)  Large  private  firms  also  provide 
in  many  cases  for  their  own  employees, 
prominent  amongst  these  being  Krupp,  with 


THE    MUNICIPALITIES  127 

nearly  5,000  homes  occupied  by  some  30,000 
inhabitants,  the  Baden  Aniline  Factory  and 
others.  The  total  number  of  workmen's 
dwellings  thus  provided  by  private  firms  is 
estimated  at  about  200,000.  Frankfurt-on- 
Main  has  developed  the  so-called  Erbbaurecht, 
a  principle  which  enables  the  State  to  lease 
the  land  belonging  to  it  for  certain  classes  of 
building,  and  for  a  definite  number  of  years 
(usually  99).  No  purchase  price  is  paid,  but 
a  yearly  rent  is  charged.  The  lessee  can  sell 
his  lease  in  the  ordinary  way,  but  the  State 
profits  by  the  increase  in  ground-value. 

A  fourth  method  of  controlling  the  housing 
problem  is  that  now  widely  adopted  by  German 
municipalities  of  imposing  a  tax,  which  really 
amounts  to  a  fine,  upon  suitable  building  land 
left  unbuilt  in  the  hope  of  a  rapid  rise  of 
ground-value,  and  further  of  imposing  taxa- 
tion representing  a  fair  proportion  of  the 
increase  in  value  between  one  sale  and  the 
next.  This  taxation  was  instituted  much 
less  for  the  purpose  of  municipal  revenue 
than  for  the  discouragement  of  pure  land-and- 
building-speculation. 

The  above  notes  must  suffice  to  suggest  the 
lines  along  which  German  cities  are  attempt- 
ing to  cope  with  the  evils  of  overcrowding,  and 
of  the  concurrent  evils  resulting  therefrom. 
Mention  must,  however,  be  made  here  of  the 
efforts  in  various  German  cities  to  erect 


128          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

series  of  dwellings  for  single  girls  and  young 
men,  with  central  kitchens  or  restaurants,  and 
other  suitable  adjuncts.  The  idea  is  not 
especially  German  in  origin,  nor  has  it  as  yet 
found  its  fullest  development  in  Germany, 
though  very  favourable  specimens  of  such 
structures  and  institutions  may  be  found  in 
Berlin  and  elsewhere.  Finally  there  should 
be  mentioned  the  garden  city  movement, 
which  came  from  England  to  Germany,  and 
has  its  best  illustration  at  present  at  Hellerau, 
near  Dresden. 


CHAPTER   VI 

GERMAN  EDUCATION 

IT  has  already  been  observed  that  education 
is  not  one  of  the  departments  which  the 
Empire  took  as  its  own  province.  Nor  has 
the  Empire  yet  provided  any  norms  or  general 
standards  upon  which  the  individual  States 
should  base  their  educational  systems.  Hence 
the  large  measure  of  uniformity  which  does 
actually  prevail  is  not  to  be  credited  to  the 
Empire,  but  either  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
individual  States,  or  perhaps  even  to  that 
mysterious  agent  "  the  force  of  circum- 
stances." The  very  low  proportion  of  illiter- 
ates amongst  the  men  called  up  for  military 
service  (less  than  three  per  thousand)  is 
sufficient  evidence  that  elementary  education 
is  nowhere  neglected  in  Germany,  although 
a  uniform  scheme  is  not  provided.  For 
comparison  it  may  be  added  that  the  propor- 
tion of  illiterates  amongst  recruits  is  in  France 
about  fifty,  in  Austria  210  per  thousand,  and 
in  Russia  more  than  seventy  per  cent. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  elementary  educa- 
i  129 


130          GERMANY    OF   TO-DAY 

tion  is  the  one  form  of  education  in  Germany 
in  which  attention  is  paid,  one  might  almost 
say,  primarily,  to  the  formation  of  character, 
which  is  notoriously  the  weak  point  in  the 
higher  branches  of  German  education.  But 
the  character  which  the  German  elementary 
school  teacher  strives  to  form  is  by  no  means 
that  of  "  upright,  manly  independence "  ; 
it  is  rather  the  character  of  a  patient  and 
obedient  link  in  a  chain.  Obediejige  and 
discipline  are  the  two  moral  lessons  of  the 
elementary  school,  as  indeed  they  are  nearly 
sure  to  be  where  the  teachers  are  Government 
officials  and  are  part  and  parcel  of  the 
machinery  erected,  at  any  rate  in  Prussia,  for 
carrying  on  the  business  of  the  State  as  the 
most  important  sphere  of  human  activity. 
Teachers  in  Prussian  elementary  schools  are 
badly  paid,  their  social  position  is  not  a  high 
one,  and  the  restrictions  are  considerable, 
but  they  are  in  general  a  conscientious  body  of 
men,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  they  are 
fitted  by  temperament  and  natural  aptitude 
for  their  task,  and  they  are  of  course  specially 
trained. 

After  leaving  the  elementary  school  at 
the  age  of  fourteen,  the  future  elemen- 
tary school  teacher  has  to  go  through  a 
five  to  seven  years'  course  in  one  of  the 
"  preparatory  institutes,"  where  he  remains 
three  years.  The  cost  of  the  preparatory 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  131 

course  is  only  36s.  6d.  per  year,  but  the 
student  has  to  provide  for  his  own  lodging 
and  food.  Prussia  has  sixty  State  establish- 
ments and  thirteen  municipal.  At  about 
the  age  of  seventeen,  after  passing  the  qualify- 
ing examination,  the  future  teacher  goes  on  to 
the  seminary,  which  is  usually  a  residential 
school  or  college,  and  provides  a  three-year 
course  of  instruction,  ending  with  practical 
teaching  under  the  guidance  of  an  expert. 
In  Saxony  the  whole  six  or  seven  years' 
course  takes  place  at  the  seminary,  and  the 
preparatory  institute  is  abolished.  The  State 
bears  the  expense  of  the  seminary  instruction, 
amounting  to  rather  less  than  £30  for  each 
candidate.  The  highest  income  attainable 
after  thirty-one  years'  service  as  elementary 
teacher  is  about  £200  per  annum. 

Elementary  education  is,  of  course,  free, 
the  State  itself  paying  about  one-third  of  the 
total  cost,  whilst  the  remaining  two-thirds  are 
borne  by  the  local  school  authorities,  that  is 
to  say  ultimately  by  the  communes,  though 
school-upkeep  and  maintenance  is  one  of  the 
few  burdens  consistently  laid  upon  Prussian 
landowners  and  squires.  It  is  scarcely  neces- 
sary to  review  at  great  length  the  character 
of  elementary  education  in  Germany.  The 
school  age  is  from  six  to  fourteen  almost 
everywhere  in  the  Empire,  and  attendance  is, 
as  in  England,  compulsory.  Recently,  owing 


132         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

to  complaints  that  there  is  not  sufficient 
attention  paid  to  the  difference  between  town 
and  country  children,  a  measure  of  specializa- 
tion has  been  introduced  in  Prussia  even  into 
elementary  education,  the  third  or  highest 
class  in  the  elementary  school  being  provided 
with  means  to  acquire  theoretical  knowledge 
applicable  to  agricultural  and  rural  callings 
generally.  It  should  be  added  that  this  has 
been  done  chiefly  under  pressure  from  the 
landowners,  who  believe  that  it  may  prove 
one  means  of  stopping  the  flight  from  the 
land  or  in  plain  language  of  providing 
farmers  with  reliable  and  obedient  farm 
labourers. 

Prussia  is  of  course  one  of  the  pioneers  of 
municipal  enterprise  in  the  provision  of 
forest  open-air  schools  for  sickly  children, 
schools  for  the  blind,  deaf,  and  other  forms 
of  early  invalidity,  and  such  special  provision 
is  on  the  increase,  though  it  is  extensively 
left  to  municipal  enterprise.  The  average 
hours  of  attendance  in  the  lowest  class  of  an 
elementary  school  are  twenty  per  week ;  in 
the  middle  and  upper  classes  the  hours  rise 
to  thirty,  including  six  hours  of  science  and 
two  of  gymnastics  and  handicraft.  The  school 
is  generally  supervised  by  the  local  clergy,  and 
religious  teaching  plays  an  important  part, 
possibly  with  the  underlying  idea  that  this 
should  serve  for  that  formation  of  moral 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  183 

character  lacking  in  the  general  features  of 
the  teachers'  control. 

The  religious  question  is  not  less  acute  in 
Germany  than  elsewhere.  In  parishes  with 
mixed  confessions  there  are  what  are  called 
Simultan-Schule,  that  is  schools  where  religious 
instruction  is  given  by  teachers  professing 
the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  religions 
respectively.  The  Catholics  are  constantly 
endeavouring  to  increase  the  number  of  these 
schools  and  the  Protestants  continually  strive 
to  secure  the  legal  abolition  of  those  already 
existing.  Considering  that  religious  instruc- 
tion occupies  four  hours  a  week  in  the  lower 
class  and  five  in  the  two  upper,  it  will  be  seen 
that  there  is  plenty  of  room  for  dispute. 
It  should  perhaps  be  added  that  the  State 
officials,  particularly  the  Landrathe,  have  a 
right  of  veto  in  the  appointment  of  school- 
inspectors,  and  are  otherwise  vested  with 
considerable  influence  in  the  school  world. 

It  is  at  the  point  where  the  German  child 
passes  out  of  the  elementary  school  at  the  age 
of  fourteen  that  the  great  work  of  German 
education  in  general  may  be  said  to  begin. 
It  has  long  been  clear  that  elementary 
education  ending  at  fourteen  is  inadequate 
and  unsatisfactory.  As  in  other  countries 
so  in  Germany  the  tendency  of  children  re- 
leased from  school  thus  early  has  been  to  drift 
into  occupations  bringing  money  to  their 


134         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

parents  early,  but  offering  to  the  children 
themselves  nothing  resembling  a  career  and 
actually  unfitting  them  for  competition  with 
children  whose  training  is  continued  longer. 
Hence  Hamburg,  Saxony,  Coburg-Gotha,  and 
other  States  introduced  a  system  of  compul- 
sory attendance  at  continuation  schools  long 
before  Prussia  took  the  matter  in  hand. 
Wiirttemberg  made  such  attendance  obliga- 
tory up  to  the  age  of  eighteen  before  the 
Prussian  Government  had  even  suggested  that 
attendance  up  to  that  age  might  be  desirable. 
Prussia,  however,  did  mark  a  new  departure 
by  placing  the  control  of  the  continuation 
schools  in  1884  no  longer  in  the  hands  of  the 
Minister  of  Education,  but  in  those  of  the 
Minister  of  Trade  and  Commerce.  This  date 
may  thus  be  said  to  mark  the  commencement 
of  the  era  of  specialized  business  training  which 
is  now  so  highly  developed  in  big  German 
towns. 

The  continuation  schools  are,  however,  not 
intended  to  serve  the  purposes  of  specializa- 
tion, hence  the  classes  are  still  usually  in  the 
hands  of  the  elementary  school  teachers,  and 
the  subjects  of  the  six-hour  course  are  mainly 
confined  to  German,  arithmetic,  geometry 
and  drawing.  Since  1891  local  authorities 
are  empowered  to  inflict  punishment  for  non- 
attendance  at  continuation  classes,  but  it  is 
stated  that  attendance  in  country  districts 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  185 

where  continuity  is  more  than  usually  neces- 
sary still  leaves  much  to  be  desired,  the  fact 
being  that  compulsion  is  difficult  to  reconcile 
very  often  with  local  conditions.  Saxony 
and  Wiirttemberg  were  amongst  the  first  to 
introduce  commercial  and  agricultural  courses, 
which  are  now  widely  developed  in  both 
countries,  as  well  of  course  as  in  Baden,  where 
continuation  schools  and  special  courses  are 
perhaps  best  organised.  The  two  Mecklen- 
burgs,  reactionary  in  this  as  in  all  else,  have 
only  just  begun  to  introduce  continuation 
schools  on  an  organised  plan.  Bavaria  is 
best  provided  with  commercial  schools,  whilst 
Baden  and  Prussia  appear  to  pay  most  atten- 
tion to  the  domestic  and  farm  training  of 
girls  and  teaching  of  handicrafts  to  boys. 

By  the  side  of  the  elementary  schools  there 
exist  a  class  of  schools  called  "  middle  schools."  v 
These  are  erected  in  Prussia  by  the  local 
authorities,  and  are  intended  to  give  a  rather 
better  education  than  is  possible  under  the 
three  class  system  of  the  elementary  schools, 
whilst  not  attempting  the  work  of  the  higher 
grade  schools.  They  are  usually  of  five 
classes,  the  numbers  of  children  in  each  class 
being  limited  to  fifty  (there  are  as  many  as 
eighty  children  in  some  classes  of  the  ele- 
mentary schools).  A  middle  school  must 
teach  at  least  one  foreign  language,  and  J 
"  where  local  conditions  make  it  desirable 


136          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

the  middle  school  is  also  to  provide  instruction 
in  agriculture,  forestry,  mining,  shipping,  com- 
merce, and  trade."  In  the  Hansa  towns,  the 
middle  schools  (which  are  almost  everywhere 
controlled  by  a  rector)  teach  both  French 
and  English  and  sometimes  Latin.  Special 
examinations  must  be  passed  by  the  teachers, 
and  the  salary  is  in  all  cases  higher  than 
that  of  the  elementary  school-teachers.  Chil- 
dren attending  these  schools  pay  small  fees, 
and  this  is  perhaps  really  one  of  their  raisons 
d'etre.  It  should  be  added  that  brilliant 
scholars  of  the  elementary  schools  have  the 
opportunity  of  gaining  a  sort  of  scholarship 
which  enables  them  to  attend  the  high 
schools  free  of  cost,  and  thus  eventually  to 
reach  the  university. 

The  high-school  course  in  Germany  is  neces- 
sarily much  more  complicated  than  the 
elementary,  and  much  less  easy  to  explain  to 
the  English  reader,  since  it  differs  to  such  an 
extent  from  the  public  school  and  university 
system  in  England.  It  will  be  best  perhaps 
to  enumerate  the  different  forms  of  German 
high  schools,  and  then  to  call  attention  to 
the  difference  in  the  aims  and  attainments 
of  these  and  English  public-schools.  It  should 
be  premised  that  on  the  whole  the  same  system 
prevails  throughout  the  Empire.  The  names 
of  the  different  kinds  of  schools  vary  a  little  and 
the  school-course  may  show  local  differences, 


GERMAN    EDUCATION  187 

but  speaking  broadly  it  is  very  nearly  true 
that  a  family  with  young  boys  transferred 
from  east  to  west  or  north  to  south  could  find 
a  school  of  the  same  type,  and  with  the  same 
course  of  study  as  the  boys  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  attend,  so  that  their  school-course 
would  suffer  very  little  interruption  from 
the  change.  From  this  jt  will  be  gathered 
that  the  high  schools  are  Government  insti- 
tutions with  a  course  of  study  prescribed  by 
the  educational  authorities,  and  not  left  to 
the  management  of  .each  particular  high 
school.  Further,  the  schools  are  non-resident. 

In  Prussia  the  following  are  the  names 
given  to  the  various  schools  : 

Classical  Course — 1.  Gymnasia,  nine  years' 
school-course ;  2.  Progymnasia,  six  years 
course. 

Semi-classical  (with  Latin) — 1.  Real  gym- 
nasia, nine  years ;  2.  Real  progymnasia,  six 
years. 

Modern  School  (without  Latin) — 1.  Ober- 
real-Schulen,  nine  years ;  2.  Real-Schulen 
(also  Hohere  Biirger-Schulen),  six  years. 

In  addition  to  these  there  are  a  certain 
number  of  schools  not  directly  under  State 
control ;  their  scheme  of  education  does  not 
differ  fundamentally  but  in  most  cases  these 
private  schools  are  confessional  in  character. 
There  are  about  six  hundred  gymnasia  and 
progymnasia  in  the  Empire,  about  200  real 


138          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

gymnasien  and  real  progymnasien  and  about 
400  oberreal-schulen  and  real-schulen.  The 
total  expense  of  their  maintenance,  as  far  as 
it  falls  on  the  States,  is  said  to  be  roughly 
£5,000,000  per  annum.  The  distinction  be- 
tween the  courses  may  be  easiest  suggested  by 
tabulating  side  by  side  the  course  of  study  in 
the  full  classical  course  and  the  full  modern 
course  ;  the  other  courses  fall  midway  between 
the  two.  The  difference  in  numbers  of  boys 
attending  the  two  courses,  classical  and 
modern,  is  now  very  little :  the  tendency  is 
for  the  modern  schools  to  increase  the  number 
of  their  scholars  at  the  expense  of  the  classical 
schools,  and  this  appears  to  be  especially 
the  case  in  West  Prussia  and  the  Rhine- 
land. 

The  full  courses  last  nine  years,  usually 
from  the  ninth  to  the  eighteenth  year.  The 
short  six-class  courses  last  only  seven  years. 

In  addition  to  the  hours  enumerated  there 
are  sometimes  extra  hours  for  special  subjects, 
and  there  is  about  two  to  three  hours' 
preparation  or  home  work.  The  theory  that 
the  German  schoolboy  works  longer  hours 
than  his  English  contemporary  is  scarcely 
maintainable.  In  an  English  public  school 
in  a  form  corresponding  age  for  age  to  the 
middle  form  of  a  German  gymnasium,  the 
hours  would  be  about  twenty-eight  per  week 
in  class  or  form,  and  twenty-one  hours' 


GERMAN   EDUCATION 


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GERMAN   EDUCATION  141 

"  preparation  "  corresponding  to  the  German 
home-work.  Many,  perhaps  most  English 
public  schools,  recognize  the  "  private  tui- 
tion "  hours,  usually  at  extra  charges  and  for 
special  purposes.  They  may  amount  to  two 
or  three  per  week.  But  the  German  school-  [^ 
boy  is  usually  harder  driven  whilst  at  work. 
The  English  scholarship  system  may  perhaps 
be  held  to  drive  a  certain  proportion  of  Eng- 
lish public  schoolboys  equally  hard,  but  the 
German  boy  has  two  incentives  which  drive 
him  from  the  very  outset.  First  of  all,  he 
cannot  attend  any  university  course  or  techni- 
cal high-school  course  without  possessing  his 
certificate  of  maturity  from  his  school :  hence 
the  "  professions  "  are  closed  to  the  sluggard 
because  the  university  or  technical  high  school 
graduate  has  an  absolute  monopoly  of  them, 
as  well  of  course  as  of  all  Government  civil 
appointments.  Secondly,  only  the  possessor 
of  a  State-regulated  certificate  of  maturity 
is  entitled  to  serve  his  time  in  the  army  as  a 
"  volunteer,"  that  is  for  one  year  instead  of 
two  in  the  infantry  or  two  instead  of  three 
in  the  cavalry.  Furthermore,  such  "  volun- 
teers," who  obtain  very  definite  privileges 
during  their  time  of  service,  are  eligible  after 
their  service  with  the  colours  to  the  corps  of 
lieutenants  of  the  reserve,  that  is  to  say  they 
are  called  up  for  their  subsequent  training  no 
longer  as  privates  but  as  officers.  Quite  apart 


142         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

from  the  professional  advantages  which  in- 
variably result  from  being  taken  away  from  a 
civil  career  for  a  full  year  less  than  other  com- 
petitors, the  title  "  Lieutenant  of  the  re- 
serve "  provides  in  a  country  so  overwhelm- 
ingly given  up  to  the  military  hierarchy  as 
Germany  a  social  position,  the  lack  of  which 
is  from  the  outset  a  very  grave  handicap. 

The  scholarship  impulse  in  England  is 
very  largely  financial :  the  driving  motive  is 
"  unless  you  get  a  scholarship  I  cannot  afford 
to  send  you  to  a  university."  The  impulse 
is  thus  only  a  temporary  one  and  the  prestige 
of  success  is  comparatively  short-lived.  The 
German  impulse  is  the  desire  to  avoid  what  is 
usually  a  clearly  recognized  handicap  lasting 
through  life. 

It  follows  necessarily  that  the  German  school 
system,  however  throughgoing  the  instruc- 
tion and  grounding  may  be  and  despite  its 
acknowledged  merits  as  the  basis  of  a  general 
education  in  the  narrowest  sense  of  the  word, 
is  not  and  by  its  very  nature  cannot  be  a  sys- 
tem based  upon  the  building  up  of  character  ; 
it  is  not  educational  in  the  best  sense.  English 
public  schools  may  and  do  turn  out  many 
"  weeds,"  they  do  facilitate  the  "  ice- jam  " 
of  lazy  and  hulking  incompetents  in  the  lower 
middle  forms,  but  those  who  are  not  weeded 
out  by  the  ordeal  are  better,  man  for  man, 
than  the  average  product  of  the  German 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  143 

system.  The  German  system,  to  put  it 
another  way,  levels  all  to  an  average,  almost 
to  a  uniformity.  The  English  system  turns 
out  some  lanky  weeds  and  some  stunted 
growths  but  it  also  turns  out  some,  even  many, 
first-class  plants  of  a  kind  much  less  frequent 
in  Germany.  There  is  a  corollary  to  this  pro- 
position. An  English  head-master  who  did 
not  at  least  try  to  select  his  staff  with  a  view  to 
their  influence  on  the  character  of  the  boys  who 
are  to  come  under  him  would  be  condemned 
universally  as  false  to  the  system  and  to  his 
calling.  The  German  school  authorities  are 
glad  enough,  no  doubt,  to  get  a  teacher  whose 
influence  is  likely  to  be  good  but  they  are 
more  inclined  to  be  satisfied  if  his  influence  is 
not  bad.  The  first  consideration  is  his  ability 
to  teach  his  subjects  according  to  scheme. 

The  governance  of  the  schools  is  in  the  last 
instance  in  the  hands  of  the  Minister  for 
Education  :  there  is  also  in  eacTT  Prussian 
province  a  medial  authority  called  a  "  pro- 
vincial school-college,"  that  is  a  school  board 
consisting  of  officials,  whilst  the  Provincial 
President  has  two  educational  advisers 
attached  to  his  staff.  These  various  officials 
control  the  finances  and  general  management  of 
the  schools,  give  orders  for  the  examinations 
and  have  a  general  right  of  inspectorate, 
except  where  the  schools  are  municipal,  in 
which  case  the  rights  are  held  by  a  municipal 


144         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

commission.  The  staff  consists  of  a  director, 
who  may  give  as  much  as  sixteen  hours' 
teaching  per  week,  and  a  number  of  first-class 
teachers  giving  from  twenty  to  twenty-four 
hours'  teaching  per  week  and  eligible  for  the 
title  of  professor.  The  salary  of  a  director 
is  from  £300  to  £400  per  annum  and  of  a 
teacher  from  £130  to  £250.  These  salaries, 
however,  of  course  carry  pensions. 

One  of  the  most  useful  publications  in 
Germany,  the  "  miniature  library  on  choice 
of  a  career,"  expends  a  chapter  of  its  scanty 
space  in  warning  German  lads  against  select- 
ing teaching  as  a  career  :  the  reason  is  that  of 
those  who  do  become  teachers  very  many  are 
not  in  the  least  born  teachers  but  such  as  have 
become  used  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  school 
in  their  nine  years,  and  have  besides  followed 
the  formal  course  which  is  compulsory  for 
teachers,  that  is  the  gymnasial  course  leading 
to  the  faculty  of  philology  at  the  universities, 
so  that  they  drift  into  the  teacher's  profession 
automatically  as  being  the  natural  outlet 
from  their  gradually  specialised  educational 
course.  One  may  be  pardoned  perhaps  for 
pointing  out  that  in  this  matter  extremes  meet. 
It  is  a  subject  for  complaint  that  in  too  many 
instances  English  school  teachers  are  men  who 
have  drifted  into  a  profession  which  does 
not  suit  them  because  on  leaving  the  university 
they  have  been  left  stranded  without  a  purpose 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  145 

in  life  and  with  only  a  very  general  idea  of 
what  they  should  do  next.  The  question 
what  to  do  next  is  too  often  answered  by  the 
formula,  "  Apply  to  a  scholastic  agency." 
It  has  been  argued  ad  nauseam  that  the 
German  system,  which  practically  compels 
specialisation  at  the  university  and  often 
earlier,  avoids  this  danger.  It  does  nothing 
of  the  sort.  It  simply  crams  into  the  teaching 
profession  a  number  of  men  who  having  been 
taught  along  the  lines  laid  down  by  the 
State  for  a  future  professor  or  first-class 
teacher  naturally  drift  along  into  teaching  as 
being  the  line  of  least  resistance  and  on  the 
whole  the  shortest  cut  to  a  miserable  pension. 
Socially,  to  put  the  matter  mildly,  Germany 
has  yet  to  recognize  the  teacher's  as  one  of  the 
honoured  professions.  She  is  at  least  as  far 
as  England  from  adopting  the  apostrophe  of 
Juvenal, 

Di,  majorum  umbris  tenuem  et  sine  pondere  terram 
Spirantesque  crocos  et  in  urna  perpetuum  ver 
Qui  praeceptorem  sancto  voluere  parentia 
Esse  loco. 

After  eight  or  nine  terms  at  the  University 
during  the  philological  course  of  the  academic 
teacher,  the  student  has  to  spend  a  year  at  a 
seminary,  where  he  is  instructed  in  the  practice 
and  theory  of  pedagogy.  Then  there  is  yet 
another  year  without  salary,  and  before  the 
candidate  has  obtained  a  permanent  appoint- 


146          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

ment  he  is  usually  thirty-three  or  thirty-five 
years  old  and  has  incurred  an  educational 
expense  of  about  £1000.  Even  when  the 
future  teacher  has  passed  his  final  State 
examination  in  pedagogy  and  is  qualified 
to  accept  an  appointment  his  troubles  are  not 
at  an  end.  He  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  pro- 
vincial directorate  of  schools,  who  may  dis- 
patch him  here  and  there  over  its  district  as 
locum-tenens  at  small  salary,  or  if  he  prefer 
he  may  ask  for  work  as  volunteer,  in  which 
case  he  at  least  saves  travelling  expenses. 
Furor  est  post  omnia  perdere  naulon.  "  A 
crotchety,  jejune  faddist,"  says  the  little  guide 
I  have  mentioned,  "  is  expected  to  educate 
our  lads  to  become  free  men,  pillars  of  the 
State,  lights  of  the  world." 

If  the  German  becomes,  as  it  is  complained 
that  he  increasingly  does,  a  mere  wheel,  and 
if  more  and  more  the  nation  appears  to  accept 
the  doctrine  that  the  individual  exists  for  the 
State  machine,  not  the  other  way  about,  it 
would  seem  that  no  small  portion  of  the  blame 
therefor  must  be  laid  to  the  account  of  the 
German  school  system. 

The  fees  for  higher  education  are  so  mode- 
rate as  to  be  within  the  reach  of  a  much  larger 
percentage  of  boys  than  the  public-school 
education  in  England.  For  the  classical 
course  the  average  fee  is  approximately  £7  10s. 
per  annum.  In  the  modern  schools  it  is 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  147 

£5 10s.,  but  in  neither  case  do  these  fees  include 
books  or  stationery. 

Concerning  the  general  results  on  the 
individual  of  the  high-pressure  system  there 
is  much  dispute.  It  is  asserted,  for  instance, 
that  as  a  result  of  the  system  seventy  per  cent, 
of  the  lads  become  short-sighted  and  that  forty 
per  cent,  are  ultimately  rejected  as  unfit  for 
military  service.  It  is  also  painfully  true  that  i- 
child-suicide  is  disproportionately  frequent 
in  Germany.  The  Berlin  papers  report  on  an 
average  not  less  than  one  a  week  throughout 
the  year  and  in  by  far  the  greater  number  of 
cases  the  report  runs,  "  The  child  committed 
suicide  owing  to  having  received  a  bad  report, 
or  owing  to  having  failed  to  pass  the  terminal 
examination,  or  having  failed  to  secure  pro- 
motion." It  might  reasonably  be  suspected 
that  some  of  the  fault  lies  in  these  cases  with 
the  German  parents  and  not  entirely  with  the 
system. 

The  higher  education  of  girls  is  neither 
so  thoroughly  organised  as  that  of  boys, 
nor  is  it  to  anything  like  the  same  extent 
in  the  hands  of  the  State  or  of  the  municipali- 
ties. The  fees  vary  from  three  to  six  pounds 
per  annum,  and  the  course  is  nominally  a  nine- 
year  one.  The  tendency,  however,  in  Germany 
as  elsewhere  is  to  conform  the  courses  approxi- 
mately to  those  of  the  boys'  schools,  and  this 
tendency  of  course  makes  itself  more  promi- 


148         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

nent  in  the  more  advanced  stages  of  education. 
There  are  some  gymnasia  for  girls  in  Berlin, 
Leipzig,  and  elsewhere  with  four-year  courses 
and  a  fee  of  about  £12  per  annum. 

Germany  is  as  yet  no  more  than  on  the 
way  toward  a  State  recognition  of  the  in- 
creasing extent  of  feminine  competition  in 
public  life.  There  are  between  30,000  and 
40,000  women-teachers  under  State  control 
in  Germany,  but  the  majority  of  these  are 
teachers  of  the  elementary  schools.  So  far 
as  the  education  of  girls  is  concerned  it  would 
seem  to  be  true  that  the  Governments  within 
the  Empire  are  chiefly  concerned  to  prevent 
girls  drifting  from  the  elementary  schools  into 
factory  or  shop-work,  and  statistics  published 
by  the  Bavarian  Government  appear  to 
show  that  continuation  schools  for  girls,  with 
instruction  in  household  management,  the 
care  of  children,  and  domestic  economy,  have 
the  effect  of  reducing  the  "  rush  to  the 
counter." 

The  essential  difference  between  the  educa- 
tion given  at  a  German  university  and  that 
given  at  one  of  the  old  English  universities  is 
that  the  German  course  is  not  even  regarded 
as  the  completion  of  a  general  education. 
It  is  a  special  education  for  a  special  purpose, 
and  the  tendency  is  for  specialisation  to 
increase,  as  is  shown  by  the  growth  of  the  tech- 
nical high  school  system  (which  is  perhaps 


GERMAN    EDUCATION  149 

really  better  translated  university  technical 
graduate  course)  and  also  by  the  fact  that 
whereas  there  is  rarely  any  difficulty  in 
obtaining  money  for  the  establishment  of  a 
new  chair  in  some  highly  specialised  and 
technical  branch  there  are  repeated  excuses 
made  when  there  is  a  question  of  filling  a 
vacant  chair  in  one  of  the  classical  subjects. 

Unconsciously,  perhaps,  the  State  is  here 
again  following  the  tendency  already  seen  in 
connection  with  school  education,  to  subor- 
dinate the  individual  and  his  character  to  the 
welfare  or  the  supposed  welfare  of  the  State. 
"  Man  is  a  productive  animal,"  takes  the 
place  of  Aristotle's  dictum  about  the  Politikon 
Zoon.  From  this  it  also  follows  that  the 

German  university  life  tends  more  and  more, 

to  lose  its  social  character.  The  picturesque 
student  of  Heidelberg,  Jena,  or  Gottingen 
with  his  sabre  slashes  and  his  dog  and  his  mug 
of  beer  was,  perhaps,  always  a  parody  of  life 
at  a  German  university.  Now  he  has  ceased 
to  be  even  a  parody  of  a  social  institution 
which  may  have  corresponded  more  or  less 
to  the  social  life  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge. 
It  is  not,  of  course,  true  that  this  social  life 
has  vanished  or  that  the  parody  thereof  is 
no  more  to  be  met  in  Heidelberg,  but  it  no 
longer  sets  its  stamp  upon  the  whole.  The 
State  might  almost  be  said  to  use  the  uni- 
versities (which  of  course  are  State  institutions) 


150         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

for  turning  out  specialised  parts  of  its  own 
intricate  machinery :  the  technical  high 
schools  serve  at  any  rate  very  largely  to  turn 
out  the  machinery  of  other  departments  of 
human  activity,  for,  as  we  shall  see,  the  rapid 
progress  of  Germany  in  the  domain  of  indus- 
try is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  German 
readily  falls  into  his  place  as  a  wheel  and 
does  not  easily  strike  out  for  himself. 

It  is  the  smooth  working  of  the  more 
delicate  parts  of  the  German  industrial 
machine  which  is  one  of  its  most  prominent 
characteristics,  and  this  may  be  due  to  some 
extent  to  the  fact  that  the  parts  are  ready  for 
adjustment  when  they  are  delivered  from 
the  technical  high  school.  But  specialization 
almost  always  involves  delay,  and  the  delay 
is  accentuated  partly  by  the  Government 
control  exercised  over  so  many  branches  of 
public  life,  with  all  the  apparatus  of  certificates 
and  examinations,  and  partly,  of  course,  by 
the  system  of  military  service.  We  have 
already  seen  that  the  German  high  school 
teacher  is  well  on  into  the  thirties  as  a  rule 
before  he  obtains  the  first  salary  that  can  be 
described  as  a  living  wage  in  the  sphere  he 
is  compelled  to  occupy.  In  other  professions 
the  same  feature  prevails,  and  this  in  turn 
makes  for  specialization.  Unless  a  man 
comes  ready  fitted  and  trained  to  his  job, 
he  must  of  necessity  fall  behind  in  the  race, 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  151 

because  coming  so  late  to  his  life's  work  he 
has  no  time  to  learn  it  when  his  work  has 
begun.  That  this  system  produces  a  scientific 
class  of  workmen  is,  of  course,  fully  proved, 
and  scientific  workmen  make  for  rapid 
national  progress.  But  it  is  at  least  a  matter 
of  dispute  whether  the  individual  profits 
by  the  system.  Collegiate  life,  then,  as  it  is 
understood  in  England,  does  not  exist  at 
a  German  university,  and  that  which  is  called 
the  "  hall-mark  "  is  left  to  be  prefixed  by  the 
schools.  If  these,  too,  fail,  as  they  tend  to  do, 
it  would  seem  that  something  which  is  valu- 
able to  the  individual  must  be  missing 
altogether.  The  effects  on  the  manners  of 
the  nation  are,  to  speak  politely,  sufficiently 
apparent. 

We  shall  now  note  briefly  the  various 
faculties  at  the  universities,  of  which  there  are 
twenty-four,  including  the  Military  Academy, 
and  excluding  the  new  University  of  Frank- 
furt-on-Main,  which  has  only  just  received 
the  royal  permission  for  its  foundation. 

The  statistics  show  that  there  were  in  the 
winter  term,  1912,  2,852  students  taking  the 
theological  course,  of  which  no  more  need 
be  said,  since  its  purpose  is  sufficiently 
evident.  Over  11,000  were  taking  the  course 
of  jurisprudence,  the  most  important  of  the 
four  original  faculties.  The  juristic  faculty 
is  the  gateway  not  only  to  the  Bench  and  the 


152         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Bar,  but  also  to  the  civil  service,  the  diplo- 
matic service,  and  so  forth.  The  course 
lasts  usually  three  and  a  half  years.  After 
passing  his  first  examination  the  candidate 
for  the  Bench  becomes  a  Referendar,  usually 
a  purely  honorary  title,  which  is  held  for  four 
or  five  years  unless  the  Referendar  be  a 
candidate  for  the  diplomatic  service,  in  which 
case  the  period  is  shortened  to  two  years. 
In  any  case  the  candidate  for  further  advance- 
ment along  any  of  the  lines  opened  by  the 
juristic  faculty  must  satisfy  the  authorities 
that  he  is  in  a  financial  position  so  to  live  as 
to  cast  no  discredit  during  this  unpaid  period 
upon  the  profession  he  proposes  to  adopt. 
(It  will  be  seen  that  though  university  fees 
are  low,  there  is  heavy  expenditure  to  be  met 
before  the  graduate  can  pass  from  the 
university  to  the  practice  of  his  chosen 
profession.) 

The  faculty  of  medicine,  which  needs  no 
explanation,  showed  nearly  14,000  students, 
of  whom  600  were  women.  The  course  of 
study  required  for  practice  as  a  doctor  in 
Germany  is  both  long  and  expensive :  the 
university  fees  are  nearly  double  those  of  the 
juristic  faculty,  but  the  course  is  rather 
shorter.  The  candidate  studies  anatomy, 
physiology,  botany,  chemistry,  physics  and 
zoology.  After  passing  his  examination,  called 
the  tentamen  physicum,  the  student  takes 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  158 

up  a  practical  course  of  lectures  and  observa- 
tion at  the  hospitals.  This  course  lasts  about 
five  years,  and  is  followed  by  a  rigorous 
State  examination,  which  is  so  lengthy  that 
at  the  smallest  universities  it  takes  not  less 
than  eight  weeks,  whilst  at  the  greatest  and 
most  famous  it  may  take  from  six  to  nine 
months.  There  follows  the  "  doctor  "  exami- 
nation, which  probably  lasts  not  less  than 
eight  weeks,  and  the  young  doctor  who  has 
then  passed  this  final  test  is  permitted  to 
give  his  services  to  a  hospital  for  a  year 
without  remuneration.  His  army  service 
consists  of  six  months  with  the  army  medical 
corps.  Thus  under  favourable  circumstances 
the  doctor  may  be  ready  to  start  a  practice 
at  the  end  of  seven  or  eight  years.  Unless 
he  now  has  some  small  reputation  and  a 
considerable  capital  to  help  him  along,  he 
may  spend  some  ten  years  as  assistant  surgeon 
at  a  hospital  or  from  three  years  upwards, 
if  he  is  specializing. 

The  philological  course,  as  has  already 
been  mentioned,  is  the  course  for  teachers, 
and  it  lasts  about  five  years.  The  statistical 
tables  give  about  13,000  students,  and  there 
are  about  as  many  studying  the  special 
branches,  which  are  included  in  the  lists  of 
students  under  the  general  title  of  "  philo- 
sophy," etc. ;  that  is  to  say,  mathematics, 
chemistry,  agriculture,  pharmacy,  dentistry. 


154         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  some  of  these  must 
include  simply  students  attending  a  special 
course  of  lectures  on  a  special  subject.  Such 
courses  cannot,  of  course,  be  described  as 
faculties. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  desirable  to  add  a 
note  regarding  the  management  and  staff  of 
German  universities. 

The  German  student  has  one  inestimable 
advantage,  namely,  that  the  professors  at 
the  German  universities  are  by  no  means  only 
theorists.  The  supervision  exercised  by  the 
State  over  its  universities  ensures  that  where 
practical  science  is  required  a  practical  scientist 
shall  teach  it.  Hence  to  some  extent  the  old 
world  complaint  of  the  aloofness  of  the 
lecture-room  is  made  baseless,  and  the  com- 
bination of  practice  and  theory,  the  wedding 
of  science  and  technique,  which  is  the  basis 
/of  German  material  progress,  is  introduced 
into  the  universities  as  it  is  into  the  technical 
high  schools.  An  inventor  of  importance 
is  usually  sooner  or  later  the  expounder  to 
students  of  his  own  discoveries.  It  is  also 
clear  that  the  system  whereby  university 
professors  are  exchanged  by  universities  makes 
for  uniformity  of  opportunity  throughout  the 
Empire  without  the  necessity  for  an  imperial 
norm.  On  the  whole  university  professors 
are  not  highly  paid.  A  professor  in  ordinary, 
if  he  be  of  great  national  importance  and 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  155 

highly  respected,  may  in  Prussia  be  in  receipt 
of  an  income  amounting  to  about  £000 ; 
the  average  salary  in  Prussia  is  about  £350, 
to  which  should  be  added  the  lecture  fees, 
which  in  certain  instances  may  amount 
to  another  £100  per  annum. 

Complaint  is  made  that,  despite  the  general 
cheapness  of  German  universities,  the  teaching  : 
they  give  is  not  made  accessible  to  the  poorer 
classes.  To  some  extent  this  is,  of  course, 
true,  but  efforts  are  made  to  enable  poor 
students  to  take  courses  free  of  charge  under 
what  is  called  the  "  poverty-certificate." 
University  extension  courses  are  also  increas- 
ing, and  as  elsewhere  have  been  found 
justified  by  results. 

The  majority  of  the  German  universities 
are  now  open  also  to  women,  and  there  are 
considerable  numbers  of  unattached  female 
auditors  as  well  as  the  regular  students. 
Strangely  enough,  "  misogyny "  amongst 
university  lecturers,  once  rather  common, 
is  by  no  means  extinct.  Certain  well-known 
lecturers  at  Berlin  University,  and  elsewhere, 
still  refuse  to  lecture  before  a  mixed  audience. 

We  now  turn  to  that  feature  of  education 
hi  which  so  far  at  least  as  Europe  is  concerned, 
Germany  was  the  pioneer  and  is  still  the  model, 
the  teaching  provided  in  the  technical  high 
schools.  It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  explain 
the  purpose  or  the  character  of  the  German 


156         GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY 

technical  high  schools.  Most  of  the  high 
schools  date  back  for  seventy  years,  and  they 
have  borne  a  very  large  share  in  the  bringing 
of  Germany  commercially  and  industrially 
as  well  as  scientifically  to  the  front.  They 
rank  now  with  the  universities,  confer  degrees 
in  the  same  way,  and  make  the  same  require- 
ments of  those  who  desire  to  take  the  courses 
they  offer.  The  four  general  courses  of  the 
technical  high  schools,  corresponding  to  the 
faculties  of  the  universities,  are  :  (1)  Archi- 
tecture ;  (2)  Building  (civil  engineering) ; 
(3)  Machinery,  including  shipbuilding,  which, 
however,  is  more  and  more  becoming  a  separ- 
ate faculty ;  (4)  Chemistry  and  Mining ; 
(5)  Science  and  Mathematics.  But  there 
are  also  special  academies  of  mining,  forestry, 
agriculture,  veterinary  surgery,  and  art, 
including  sculpture,  architecture,  engraving, 
and  so  forth.  Some  of  these  are  directly 
attached  to  the  normal  universities,  like  the 
agricultural  high  school  at  Bonn,  which  is 
attached  to  Bonn  University.  The  musical 
high  school  in  Berlin,  to  mention  one  only  of 
numerous  illustrations  of  specialization,  is 
famous  throughout  Europe. 

Whilst  specialist  education  for  industrial 
pursuits  was  thus  early  a  feature  of  German 
education,  there  was  one  branch  of  special 
training  to  which  attention  was  called  com- 
paratively late,  namely,  special  commercial 


GERMAN   EDUCATION  157 

education.  The  earliest  commercial  high 
school  seems  to  have  been  that  at  Leipzig, 
which  is  loosely  connected  with  Leipzig 
University.  Cologne  and  Frankfurt  have 
commercial  high  schools  since  1903,  and  Berlin 
since  1906.  There  was  a  special  purpose 
behind  the  foundation  of  most  of  these 
commercial  universities.  It  was  felt  that  men 
who  are  subsequently  to  manage  the  affairs 
of  large  commercial  undertakings  or  to 
administrate  the  affairs  of  chambers  of  com- 
merce ought  to  possess,  if  possible,  the  prestige 
of  a  university  degree  or  its  equivalent,  but 
there  was  a  strong  body  of  opinion  which 
disapproved  of  the  young  men  being  removed 
for  three  years  from  the  atmosphere  of  com- 
mercialism in  which  they  expected  to  spend 
their  lives.  This  difficulty  was  overcome 
to  some  extent  by  the  establishment  of  these 
commercial  universities,  which  are  in  almost 
all  cases  foundations  established  by  local 
communities,  or  as  in  Berlin  by  the  Merchants' 
Guild  (Aelteste  der  Kaufmannschaft).  Leipzig 
found  that  the  commercial  lectures  were 
flooded  by  foreign  students,  so  it  was  arranged 
that  all  fees  at  Berlin  Commercial  High 
School  should  be  doubled  for  foreign  students, 
except  the  fees  payable  for  the  laboratories. 
The  fee  for  Germans  at  Berlin  is  on  entrance 
thirty  shillings,  and  terminally  £6  6s.  The 
following  is  the  usual  three-year  course  : 


158         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

In  the  first  semester  the  student  is  recom- 
mended to  attend  two  lectures  weekly  on  the 
theory  and  technique  of  book-keeping,  method 
in  trade,  trade  arithmetic,  and  so  forth.  He 
is  further  advised  to  take  one  of  the  four-hour 
courses  in  a  foreign  language.  In  addition, 
he  usually  takes  a  special  subject,  such  as 
national  economy,  bourgeois  legislation, 
experimental  physics,  or  the  like. 

In  the  second  semester  the  student  takes 
the  advanced  five-hour  course  in  a  foreign 
language,  as  well  as  courses  in  international 
commerce  and  trade,  trade  law,  colonial 
trade  (especially  trade  with  the  great  English 
colonies),  etc.  The  two  last  semesters  are 
usually  devoted  to  further  study  in  the  theory 
and  practice  of  commercial  science  and 
kindred  subjects.  The  examination  for  the 
diploma  is  oral  and  written,  failure  in  two 
written  papers  disqualifying  for  the  oral 
examination. 

Four  classes  of  students  are  admitted, 
but  probably  the  most  interesting  class  is 
that  of  those  students  who  have  taken  the 
short  six-year  course  of  the  gymnasium,  and 
having  thus  obtained  the  one-year  volunteer 
certificate,  have  then  served  a  three-year 
business  apprenticeship.  A  special  three- 
year  course  is  provided  for  these,  as  shown 
above,  or  they  can  take  a  one-year  course 
if  desired.  The  other  three  classes  of  students 


GERMAN  EDUCATION          159 

are  those  who  have  taken  the  full  nine-year 
gymnasium  course,  students  of  commercial 
intermediate  schools,  and  German  teachers 
who  have  already  taken  their  State  examin- 
ation. 


CHAPTER   VH 

THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  INDUSTRY 

IF  it  be  true  that  Germans  upon  whom  the 
burden  is  laid  have  shown  an  immense 
capacity  for  organization  not  only  of  army 
and  navy,  as  we  saw  in  a  foregoing  chapter, 
but  also  of  almost  all  departments  of  human 
activity,  it  is  no  less  true  that  Germans 
generally  show  a  marvellous  capacity  for 
being  organized.  Whether  this  is  an  inherent 
virtue,  carried  at  times  to  an  excess  which 
renders  it  a  vice,  or  whether  it  is  the  result 
of  years  of  military  training,  need  not  now  be 
disputed.  The  German  system  of  education, 
and  even  the  carefully  graduated  bureaucratic 
system,  which  is  less  correctly  pictured 
as  wheels  within  wheels  than  as  a  vast  system 
of  band  transmissions,  have  played  and  con- 
tinue to  play  their  part  in  this  development 
of  the  capacity  for  being  organized. 

From  very  early  years,  as  has  been  seen, 

the  German  youth  envisages  his  future  career, 

prepares  for  it,  accepts  it  as  the  inevitable, 

and,  if  he  will,  can  virtually  estimate  its  finan- 

160 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY  161 

cial  possibilities  before  he  has  entered  upon  it. 
An  American  writer  has  asserted  that  many, 
perhaps  most  Germans  can  estimate  their 
income  from  the  time  they  begin  to  earn 
one  until  they  draw  their  old-age  pensions. 
This  necessarily  decreases  individual  ambition 
and  makes  for  contentment,  which  for  the 
individual  is  not  always  an  unmixed  blessing, 
but  creates  a  state  of  mind  which  facilitates 
the  organization  of  the  individual  in  the 
interests  of  the  State  or  of  the  capitalist. 
Both  the  States  and  the  Empire,  as  well  as  the 
municipalities,  further  encourage  this  condi- 
tion of  things  by  their  extremely  thorough 
and  extremely  definite  care  that  the  individual 
shall  not  be  too  greatly  worried  about  his 
future.  The  vast  system  of  insurance  in 
which  Germany  was  the  pioneer  was  devised 
by  the  Empire-builders  less  because  of  any 
strictly  humanitarian  tendencies  than  with 
the  object  of  encouraging  contentment  or 
rather  of  discouraging  individual  ambition, 
except  along  the  hard  and  fast  lines  laid  down 
by  the  State  scheme.  It  would  not,  of 
course,  be  fair  to  assert  that  the  insurance 
system  was  invented  solely  as  a  sop  to  the 
Cerberus  of  labour,  any  more  than  it  is  true 
that  the  universal  manhood  suffrage  of  the 
Reichstag  electoral  system  was  granted  in 
the  face  of  feudal  opposition  simply  to  prevent 
popular  opposition  to  the  universal  manhood 


162          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

military  service  :  but  effectively  the  one  and 
the  other  case  may  be  considered  as  partially 
true. 

The  capacity  for  being  organised  has  however 
produced  results  not  entirely  in  accordance 
with  those  desired.  The  organisation  of  the 
German  Social  Democracy,  probably  the 
most  astonishingly  perfect  political  organisa- 
tion the  world  has  ever  seen,  would  not  be 
possible  in  any  other  country  in.  Europe. 
Education  enables  the  individual  to  under- 
stand what  is  required  of  him,  but  it  does  not 
cause  him,  at  least  in  Germany,  to  demand 
the  reasons  for  these  requirements ;  moreover, 
instructions  must  be  very  plain,  and  must  not 
require  the  exercise  of  any  particular  effort 
of  the  brain.  Hence  the  Socialist  head- 
quarters' staff  simplified  their  instructions 
to  the  extreme  limit,  developed  a  strategic 
and  tactical  organisation,  obviously  military 
in  its  character,  and  created  a  nucleus 
of  some  million  "  enlisted "  troops,  which 
for  electoral  purposes  can  be  brought  up  to 
nearly  four  millions.  No  one  who  has 
watched  the  vast  army  of  Berlin  Socialist 
demonstrators  marching  out  in  well-organised 
companies  with  their  marked  commissioned 
and  non-commissioned  officers,  company  by 
company  and  regiment  by  regiment,  to  some 
one  of  the  great  parks  or  commons  can  mistake 
the  character  of  the  formation  or  the  habit  of 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY   163 

mind  which  make  such  an  orderly  political 
demonstration  possible.  There  is  no  noise, 
no  conflict,  and  unless  the  police  interfere  no 
windows  or  heads  are  broken.  The  tens  of 
thousands  march  out,  listen  to  a  speech,  record 
a  resolution,  and  march  back  to  barracks. 
The  desired  effect  is  produced  by  the  leaders 
not  by  the  led.  The  Government  is  warned 
that  this  or  that  proposal  can  and  will  be  met 
at  the  word  of  command  by  so  and  so  many 
opponents :  there  is  no  pretence  that  the 
demonstration  is  the  spontaneous  outburst 
of  an  infuriated  populace.  And  just  for 
this  reason  these  demonstrations  somewhat 
fail  of  their  desired  effect,  but  they  illustrate, 
which  was  also  the  purpose  of  this  digression, 
the  German  capacity  for  being  organised. 

But  there  was  a  more  immediate  cause  than 
this  capacity  for  being  organised  leading  to  the 
immense  development  of  German  industry, 
especially  after  1890,  and  again  after  the  crisis 
of  1900,  namely,  the  growth  of  internal  com- 
petition as  the  result  of  the  foundation  of  the 
Empire,  a  growth  which  compelled  German 
manufacturers  to  raise  continually  their 
standards  of  quality  and  hence  constantly  to 
improve  their  methods  of  production.  No 
doubt  this  effect  ought  to  have  been  produced 
in  great  measure  by  the  foundation  of  the 
economic  union  in  1833,  followed  as  the  union 
was  by  a  vast  improvement  of  means  of 


164         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

communication,  and  by  the  development  of  the 
railways,  but  actually  it  would  appear  that 
the  divisions  of  the  German  States  politically 
and  the  uncertainty  which  was  produced  by 
the  non-existence  of  a  reliable  military  union 
retarded  development,  which  however  was 
ready  to  burst  out  so  soon  as  there  was  poli- 
tical conformity  promising  a  period  of  military 
security. 

It  may  therefore  be  untrue  or  only  partly 
true  that  the  foundation  of  the  Empire  was 
the  principal  cause  of  that  sudden  develop- 
ment of  German  industry  which  has  been 
the  chief  characteristic  of  the  last  forty  years  : 
there  were  causes  lying  fallow  in  Germany, 
but  developed  in  other  countries.  But  it  so 
happened  that  the  dispersion  of  the  long  frost 
coincided  with  the  appearance  of  two  factors 
which  gave  German  industry  a  special  push 
upwards,  viz.,  the  introduction  of  electricity 
in  lighting  and  traction  and  as  factory  motive- 
power,  and  also  the  development  of  the 
chemical  industry,  which  is  usually  quoted 
as  the  most  brilliant  illustration  of  the  alliance 
of  laboratory  science  and  industrial  trade. 
E.  D.  Howard,  in  his  work  on  the  cause  and 
extent  of  industrial  progress  in  Germany, 
pointed  out  in  1907  that  the  early  develop- 
ment of  German  trade  was  much  less  in  the 
direction  of  foreign  competition  than  of  home 
sales.  Between  1880  and  1890  the  increase 


ORGANIZATION    OF   INDUSTRY   165 

in  the  production  of  pig-iron  was  nearly  five 
and  a  half  million  tons,  but  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  this  increased  output  found  its 
market  within  the  German  frontiers.  He  shows 
too  that  even  in  the  chemical  industry  the 
home  market  must  be  taken  to  have  grown 
faster  than  the  foreign,  and  the  same  appears 
to  be  true  ki  other  directions  also. 

At  the  outset  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that 
cheapness  at  the  expense  of  quality  was  the 
secret  of  the  development  of  German  factory 
work.  "  Cheap  and  nasty "  were  epithets 
applied  to  German  products,  not  by  envious 
foreigners  but  by  the  German  representative 
at  the  Philadelphia  centennial  celebrations  in 
1876.  Cheapness  and  the  cheap  imitation 
of  high-class  English  goods  first  drove  the 
old  high-class  German  handicraft  out  of 
competition,  and  later  laid  the  foundation  of 
Germany's  foreign  business.  It  would  be 
absurd  to  deny  that  even  to  this  present  date 
competition  with  imported  goods  in  certain 
branches  of  manufacture  is  only  maintained, 
despite  the  high  tariffs,  by  imitation  of  the 
foreign  goods  in  an  inferior  quality. 

However,  domestic  business  was  developed, 
not  only  by  these  methods,  but  also  as  has 
been  suggested  by  railway  development.  • 
From  1840  to  1860  Great  Britain  had  at  any 
time  nearly  double  the  mileage  of  railways 
that  Germany  possessed.  In  1870  Great 


166         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Britain  still  was  four  thousand  miles  ahead, 
but  in  the  next  seventeen  years,  whilst  Great 
Britain  only  added  four  thousand  miles, 
Germany  added  twenty-three  thousand  miles 
or  more  than  doubled  her  mileage.  Ten 
years  later  her  mileage  was  nearly  twice  that 
of  Great  Britain,  which  again  had  only  added 
four  thousand  miles  as  against  Germany's 
eight  thousand.  This  suffices  to  show 'how 
backward  was  Germany's  railway  communica- 
tion until  the  foundation  of  the  Empire.  It 
is  true  that  the  subsequent  rapyl  development 
may  be  attributed  in  part  to  well-recognised 
military  requirements,  but  in  the  main  the 
State  Governments  took  the  railways  in  hand 
from  economic  motives.  With  few  and  unim- 
portant exceptions  all  the  German  railways 
are  State-owned.  A  large  amount  of  public 
capital  has  been  invested  in  them,  the  States 
borrowing  for  the  construction.  Bismarck 
originally  attempted  to  secure  railway 
administration  direct  by  the  Empire,  but 
the  large  South  German  States  declined  to 
accede  to  this  project,  chiefly  for  financial 
reasons,  and  it  was  abandoned. 

In  general,  railway  administration  through- 
out the  Empire  follows  norms  which  exist, 
though  they  are  not  laid  down  as  such  by  any 
authority.  However,  disputes  do,  of  course, 
arise,  and  at  times  give  occasion  to  inter-State 
quarrels.  Prussia  nationalized  her  railways 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY  167 

immediately  after  the  war  with  France,  and 
has  used  them  not  only  as  a  very  valuable 
source  of  State  income,  but  also  as  a 
means  o£  encouraging  or  assisting  this  or  that 
industry  or  branch  of  agriculture.  Rates 
for  building  material  for  the  shipping  industry 
were  immediately  lowered  when  the  shipping 
industry  required  national  support,  rates  for 
agricultural  produce  are  lowered  when  agri- 
culture needs  a  helping  hand,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  regular  agricultural  railway  traffic  is 
a  prominent  feature  of  Prussian  administra- 
tion. The  chief  disadvantage  of  the  system 
arises  from  the  fact  that  owing  to  the  vast 
State  capital  locked  up  in  the  railways  the 
administrations  are  expected  by  the  Finance 
Ministries  to  produce  for  the  States  financial 
revenues,  which  in  some  years  are  not  quite 
in  accordance  with  the  interests  of  the  railway 
service. 

But  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  nation- 
alization of  railways  after  the  war  was  one 
of  the  deliberate  contributions  of  the  States 
to  the  rapid  development  of  industry.  The 
canal  policy  was  another  of  the  well-chosen 
means  to  the  same  end,  and  the  canalisation 
of  rivers  still  proceeds  and  is  a  paying  invest- 
ment. It  should  not  be  forgotten,  however, 
that  the  long  stretches  of  nearly  level  plain 
which  are  characteristic  of  North-Eastern 
Germany  have  facilitated  canal-work  to  an 


168         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

extent  not  frequent  elsewhere.  Many  of  the 
later  schemes  for  junction  of  north  and  south 
Germany  by  series  of  locks  over  great  hill- 
ranges  (or  by  canal-tunnels  through  them) 
are  certainly  never  destined  to  be  executed, 
because  their  value  to  the  development  of  the 
home  market  would  bear  no  kind  of  relation 
to  their  cost.  The  traffic  on  the  inland  water- 
ways of  Germany  in  1911  amounted  to  nearly 
80,000,000  tons,  carried  by  approximately 
20,000  vessels  of  various  sorts.  A  curious 
interlude  in  the  history  of  canal  development 
in  Germany  has  been  the  quarrel  over  the 
midland  canal  between  the  agrarians  and  the 
Prussian  Government.  The  main  feature 
of  the  quarrel  was  really  the  anxiety  of  the 
agrarians  lest  by  the  opening  of  a  cheap 
waterway  nominally  intended  to  facilitate  the 
communication  between  the  agricultural  east 
and  the  industrial  west  there  should  actually 
be  facilitated  the  introduction  and  popularisa- 
tion in  the  east  of  cheap  foreign  agricultural 
produce.  The  quarrel  even  developed  into 
an  estrangement  for  some  time  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  feudal  landlords  and 
aristocrats. 

The  classic  illustration  of  that  combination 
of  scientific  enquiry  with  practical  industrial 
life  which  is  quoted  as  one  of  the  "  secrets  " 
of  German  industrial  development  is,  as  has 
been  observed,  the  chemical  industry,  which, 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY   169 

as  E.  D.  Howard  says,  **  is  the  direct  produce  of 
German  technical  education :  for  the  technical 
schools  and  university-laboratories  may  be 
regarded  as  the  corner-stone  of  the  nation's 
industrial  greatness  and  the  whole  foundation 
of  its  supremacy  in  the  chemical  industry." 
The  most  spectacular  instance  of  this  growth 
of  the  chemical  industry  is  doubtless  the 
substitution  of  artificial  indigo,  discovered 
by  the  Munich  chemist,  Dr.  Bayer,  in  1897, 
for  the  vegetable  indigo,  which  Germany  had 
up  to  that  time  been  obliged  to  import.  A 
few  years  previous  to  the  discovery,  the  Empire 
was  importing  vegetable  indigo  valued  at 
over  one  million  sterling ;  a  few  years  after- 
wards Germany  was  exporting  three  times 
that  value  of  artificial  indigo.  The  value  of 
exported  dye-stuffs  derived  from  formerly 
useless  by-products  of  gas  and  coke  manu- 
facture amounted  in  the  last  year  for  which 
statistics  are  available  to  more  than  six  million 
sterling.  At  the  end  of  1909  there  were  about 
150  limited  companies  manufacturing  chemi- 
cals, their  capital  was  about  £25,000,000,  and 
their  profit  in  the  year  nearly  20  per  cent. 
[The  figures  are  quoted  from  the  Statistical 
Year-book  for  the  German  Empire.] 

The  chemical  industry,  employing  roughly 
100,000  people,  has  its  chief  seats  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Rhme_aiid  JVfain,  though 
one  of  the  largest  companies  is  the  Aniline 


170         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Company  of  Berlin,  which  employs  fifty-five 
chemists  and  twenty-one  experts.  The  well- 
known  Badische  Anilin  Fabrik  of  Ludwigshafen 
employs  148  chemists  and  75  experts,  the 
Elberfeld  factory  employs  as  many  chemists 
and  twice  the  number  of  experts.  These  are, 
of  course,  only  illustrations.  An  important 
feature  of  German  chemical  industry  is  the 
export  of  potash  salts  for  fertilisation,  of 
which  Germany  has  virtually  a  monopoly. 
The  export  is  valued  at  roughly  six  millions 
sterling  per  annum.  But,  as  has  already 
been  suggested,  one  of  the  great  factors  in 
German  industrial  development  has  been  the 
opening  up  of  her  own  home-markets,  and 
this  meant  practically  the  facilitation  of 
communications  between  the  different  dis- 
tricts producing  different  commodities. 

The  industrial  strength  of  Germany,  like 
that  of  Greats-Britain,  must  be  based  on  her 
"*  ir^on  and  steel  manufactures,  the  barometer 
of'lmlustfrial  activity  and  progress.  German 
ore  and  coal  were  neither  so  easily  nor  so 
cheaply  brought  together  as  in  the  case  of 
England,  and  it  was  only  the  nationalization 
of  railways  and  the  cheapening  of  transport 
that  made  competition  with  English  pig-iron 
possible.  It  was  further  facilitated  just  at 
the  right  moment,  that  is,  about  the  date  of 
the  foundation  of  the  Empire,  by  a  discovery, 
the  Thomas-Gilchrist  process,  which  made 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY   171 

possible  the  separation  of  phosphorus,  present 
in  disturbing  quantities  in  much  of  the  German 
ore,  particularly  in  the  Lorraine  district, 
which  had  just  been  added  to  the  Empire. 

Lorraine  had  the  additional  advantage 
of  combining  coal  and  ore  in  fairly  close 
proximity,  so  that  it  has  been  asserted  that 
in  the  future  this  proximity  and  the  con- 
sequent cheapening  of  the  smelting  process 
will  transfer  the  chief  centre  of  the  iron 
industry  from  the  Rhenish-Westphalian  dis- 
trict to  Lorraine.  This  Rhenish-Westphalian 
district  has  utilized  its  special  product, 
coking  coal,  for  the  smelting  of  ores  brought 
down  the  Rhine  from  the  Siegerland  district 
and  the  Nassau  mines,  but  also  by  canal  from 
abroad.  The  centre  of  the  industry  is  Dort- 
mund. There  is  a  third  important  smelting 
district  in  Silesia  on  the  south-eastern  frontier. 
Here  coal  and  ore  are  also  found  in  proximity, 
but  the  coal  is  said  to  be  less  suitable  for 
smelting  purposes  though  the  ore  is  richer  in 
iron.  Hard  coal  is  mined  chiefly  in  Upper 
Silesia  and  Westphalia,  the  deposits  of  Lower 
Silesia  and  the  Saar  district  being  smaller 
and,  according  to  some  estimates,  of  lower 
value. 

Other  mining  properties  in  Germany  are 
rock  salt,  copper,  lead  and  zinc,  all  in  small 
quantities  and  scattered.  The  total  amount 
of  silver,  zinc,  and  lead  ore  mined  in  1910 


172         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

amounted  to  about  3,000,000  tons,  with  a 
value  of  about  £3,000,000  sterling,  the  princi- 
pal districts  being  the  Rhine,  Harz,  Upper 
Silesia,  and  the  Erzgebirge.  The  production 
of  rock  salt  amounted  in  the  same  year  to 
about  1,000,000  tons,  with  a  value  of  £250,000, 
and  of  potassium  salts  over  8,000,000  tons, 
with  a  value  of  nearly  £5,000,000. 

The  home  market  for  iron  has  been  assisted 
very  largely  by  the  rapid  development  in 
Germany  of  the  electrical  industry,  wherein 
the  Empire  has  made  remarkable  strides, 
and  wherein  she  has  shown,  as  in  the  chemical 
industry,  one  result  of  the  work  of  her  technical 
schools.  Some  60,000  people  are  now  engaged 
in  an  industry  which  thirty  years  ago  practi- 
cally did  not  exist.  The  value  of  electrical 
machinery  and  appliances  exported  from 
Germany  now  amounts  to  about  £8,000,000 
per  annum.  Great  Britain  alone  takes  about 
£750,000  worth  of  electric  lighting  globes, 
whilst  in  other  classes  of  electrical  appliances 
Austria,  Russia,  Italy,  and  South  Africa 
appear  amongst  the  best  customers.  The 
domestic  consumption  of  electrical  appliances 
has  been  largely  forwarded  by  the  growth  of 
electric  tramways,  which  in  most  of  the  large 
German  cities  (except  Berlin)  are  in  the  hands 
of  the  municipalities.  An  important  modern 
development  is  the  use  of  electricity  for 
agricultural  purposes,  farms  being  supplied 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY   173 

with  light  and  especially  motor  power  from 
large  central  stations.  The  work  done  by 
German  technicians  and  scientists  together 
in  the  forwarding  of  wireless  telegraphy 
needs  to  be  no  more  than  mentioned. 

In  the  manufacture  of  steel  ware  and  of 
machinery,  Germany  is  usually  credited,  not 
without  justice,  with-being  rather  an  imitator 
than  an  initiator.  Her  great  success  in  this 
line  has  been  achieved  by  the  rapidity  with 
which  Germans  have  adopted  the  improve- 
ments invented  elsewhere,  and  the  fact  that 
they  have  succeeded  in  producing  the  newest 
types  of  machinery  at  prices  which  enable 
their  reproductions  to  compete  successfully 
with  the  original  manufacturers.  The  industry 
now  employs  over  half  a  million  people. 
Germany  came  late  into  the  market  as  a 
producer  of  factory -made  textiles  :  the  auto- 
matic spindle  in  cotton  spinning  was  intro- 
duced nearly  thirty  years  later  than  in 
England,  and  weaving  survived  as  a  household 
industry  much  longer  than  elsewhere.  That 
even  to  this  day  the  old  spinning  wheel  is 
only  just  vanishing  from  German  villages  is 
shown  by  the  large  number  of  wheels  which 
at  regular  periods  appear  in  the  second-hand 
market.  In  other  countries  they  have  already 
become  *'  ornaments,"  in  Germany  they  can 
be  bought,  at  certain  seasons,  for  a  few  pence. 
At  the  end  of  last  century  there  were  still 


174         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

nearly  100,000  hand  weavers  in  Germany, 
but  mostly  employed  in  producing  special 
fabrics  such  as  silk  cloths.  The  technical 
schools  are  rapidly  asserting  themselves  in 
this  as  in  so  many  other  directions,  particularly 
in  the  production  of  designs  "  with  brains 
in  them "  (Times  report,  1903).  Saxony, 
which  is  the  centre  of  the  German  cotton 
trade,  has  recently  made  great  strides  in  the 
production  of  one  special  article,  tulle,  of 
which  according  to  R.  M.  Berry  ("  Germany 
of  the  Germans,"  1911),  as  little  as  twenty 
years  ago  not  a  yard  was  made  in  the  German 
Empire.  Now  Saxony  manufactures  her  own 
frames,  and  they  turn  out  tulle  to  the  value 
of  roughly  £2,000,000  per  annum.  The  textile 
industry  employs  over  1,000,000  people,  of 
whom  nearly  half  are  women. 

Other  trades  employing  large  numbers 
of  people  are  the  metal  trade,  with  nearly 
1,000,000  employees,  and  food-stuffs  and 
clothing  (with  over  1,000,000  each).  The 
building  trade  employs  1,500,000  people,  and 
the  production  of  food-stuffs  over  200,000. 
There  are  also  over  10,000  people  employed 
in  the  fabrication  of  tobacco  preparations. 

German  industry  is  almost  as  much  syndi- 
cated, that  is,  concentrated  into  syndicates 
and  cartels,  as  the  American,  but  curiously 
enough  there  is  as  yet  no  violent  public 
feeling  against  the  syndicate  system.  The 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY  175 

opposition,  that  is,  does  not  run  along  the 
American  lines,  and  the  bulk  of  the  protesting 
literature  is  socialistic  and  devoted  to  the 
general  denunciation  of  capital  as  such,  not 
of  capital  in  its  syndicated  form.  One  reason 
for  this  may  be  that  the  German  cartels 
were  developed  under  the  stress  of  industrial 
crises,  particularly  that  of  1900-1901,  which 
followed  a  period  of  rapid  production.  E.  D. 
Howard  says  that  the  consumption  of  pig-iron 
sank  from  262  pounds  per  head  of  the  popula- 
tion in  1900  to  178  pounds  in  the  following 
year.  "  The  producers  were  forced  to  take 
combined  action  to  prevent  over-production, 
and  the  result  was  the  establishment  of 
strong  syndicates." 

These  syndicates  still  control  the  market, 
but  the  German  cartels,  unlike  the  American 
trusts,  are  not  yet  monopolies,  that  is,  they 
do  not  control  the  market  both  for  raw  mater- 
ial and  for  the  finished  products,  nor  have 
they  gone  so  far  in  merging  the  individual 
companies  into  one  corporation  ;  the  com- 
panies retain  their  legal  and  actual  individu- 
ality, but  they  submit  for  certain  purposes 
to  the  control  of  committees  representing 
common  interests.  Moreover,  organization 
and  obedience  to  organized  authority,  as 
has  already  been  suggested,  are  so  thoroughly 
drilled  into  the  German  not  only  by  the 
formalized  and  specialized  school  course, 


176         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

but  also  by  his  service  in  the  army,  that 
although  the  German  is  a  "  born  grumbler," 
he  becomes  or  is  by  nature  (professors  may 
dispute  which  is  the  correct  formula)  less 
disposed  to  give  his  grumblings  effective 
force.  The  whole  State  system,  especially 
in  Prussia,  is  so  much  and  so  obviously  a 
system  wherein  and  whereto  the  individuality 
of  its  component  individuals  is  sacrificed 
that  when  precisely  the  same  principle  is 
developed  by  modern  capitalism  for  its 
own  purposes,  it  no  longer  strikes  the  individ- 
ual so  forcibly,  and  he  is  no  longer  acutely 
conscious  of  being  outraged  as  an  individual. 

It  is  also  fairly  obvious  that  the  de- 
velopment of  scientific  machinery  and  the 
constantly  increasing  precision  of  a  big 
manufacturing  plant  tends  to  reduce  factory 
labour  ever  more  to  the  level  of  that  simple 
obedience  to  rule,  the  German  "  Vorschrift," 
which  saves  the  individual  German  so  much 
trouble  and  robs  him  of  so  much  individuality. 
Howard  observes  truly  enough  that  "  the 
capitalist  could  scarcely  ask  a  better  training 
school  for  his  employees  than  the  German 
army." 

Partnerships  give  way  to  stock  companies, 
and  stock  companies  in  turn  to  syndicates, 
but  the  nature  of  the  agreement  changes 
also.  The  syndicate  develops  into  a  public 
body,  its  executive  becomes  a  Beamtenschaft, 


ORGANIZATION   OF    INDUSTRY  177 

or  body  of  officials  invested  in  the  German 
mind  with  all  the  dignity  and  privileges  of 
the  official  caste,  and  as  such  not  lightly  to 
be  subjected  to  individual  criticism.  Hence 
there  is  a  fair  field  in  Germany  for  the  growth 
of  the  syndicate  as  the  normal  form  in 
economic  development.  In  their  own  way 
the  great  stores,  which  are  a  feature  of  the 
commercial  life  of  the  country,  especially  of 
its  big  towns,  and  against  which  small  shop- 
keepers constantly  protest  collectively  and 
individually,  are  themselves  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  same  process  whereby  the  number 
of  the  employed  increases,  but  the  number 
of  employers  does  not. 

The  German  syndicates  are  best  known  to 
English  readers  as  a  rule  owing  to  the  charge 
brought  against  them  that  they  sell  cheaper 
abroad  than  at  home ;  in  other  words,  that 
they  dump  goods  at  a  loss  abroad  in  order 
to  keep  up  the  standard  of  price  in  their  home 
market.  "  The  German  pays  double  prices 
for  his  goods  that  the  foreigner  may  get  his 
cheap."  The  defence  is  that  the  cartels  are 
not  actually  monopolies,  and  that  by  restrict- 
ing output  at  certain  periods  they  maintain 
a  more  even  market  at  home,  and  thus  a  more 
even  grade  of  employment  than  would  be 
possible  under  a  system  of  internecine  com- 
petition between  individual  companies.  It 
is  also  argued  that  the  big  companies,  like 

H 


178          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Krupps,  can  and  do  pay  more  attention  to  the 
welfare  of  their  workmen  than  would  be 
possible  for  small  employers :  they  greatly 
exceed  the  legislative  requirements  both  in 
respect  of  their  pension  schemes  and  in  respect 
of  housing,  recreation  and  so  forth.  The 
counter  claim  to  this  is,  of  course,  that  what 
some  do  all  should  be  legally  compelled 
to  do,  if  necessary  with  the  assistance  of  the 
State  funds.  However,  by  the  time  the 
argument  has  reached  this  stage  it  is  no  longer 
a  German  question,  but  one  concerning  the 
whole  relations  between  capital  and  labour. 
The  development  of  capitalism  shows  a 
progressive  increase  in  the  number  of  large 
companies  and  businesses  as  against  small, 
and  also  an  increase  in  the  number  of  limited 
liability  and  other  stock  companies  as  against 
individual  ownership,  but  this  is  doubtless 
not  an  especially  German  feature  of  capital- 
istic development.  Of  the  combinations  of 
labour  as  opposed  to  capital,  the  Social 
Democracy  is,  of  course,  the  most  striking : 
it  is  at  least  an  open  question,  however, 
whether  it  is  also  the  most  effective.  Its 
devotion  to  Marxianism  and  to  principles 
which  could  only  be  brought  into  practice 
by  a  complete  overthrow  of  the  existing  social 
order  has  in  the  past  prevented  its  parliament- 
ary representatives  from  acting  as  a  Labour 
party ;  the  Socialist  party  in  the  Reichstag 


ORGANIZATION   OF   INDUSTRY  179 

has  developed  into  a  permanent  opposition, 
making  a  valuable  occasional  ally  for  dis- 
contented groups  in  other  parts  of  the  house, 
but  not  itself  an  effective  fighting  unit. 

This  ineffectivity  has  produced  the  South- 
German  Revisionist  movement  within  the 
Social  Democracy,  which  aims  at  depriving 
the  party  of  its  purely  negative  force,  and  at 
enabling  it  to  record  a  vote  when  desirable 
in  favour  of  the  lesser  of  two  evils,  particularly 
in  financial  legislation.  That  this  Revisionist 
principle  will  in  time  prevail  practically 
throughout  the  party  may  be  taken  perhaps 
for  granted :  it  would  prevail  much  sooner 
if  the  Prussian  Government  would  adopt  some 
of  the  more  liberal  spirit  which  prevails  in 
other  parts  of  Germany  ;  for  it  is  precisely 
the  absurdity  of  the  Prussian  feudalism  in  the 
bureaucracy  and  in  the  Prussian  Diet,  and 
the  comparative  harshness  with  which  the 
executive  works  that  makes  Prussia  the 
stronghold  not  only  of  the  old  feudal  spirit, 
but  also  of  the  strict  Socialist  spirit,  the 
stalwarts  of  the  "  Umsturz." 

Apart  from  the  social  democratic  combina- 
tion, whereof  the  kernel  is  the  Socialist  Union, 
there  are  two  other  forms  of  Trades-Unions 
in  Germany,  the  Christian  Union  and  the 
Hirsch-Duncker  Union.  The  former,  with  a 
present  membership  of  about  350,000,  is  at 
variance  with  the  Social  Democracy  mainly 


180         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

on  the  ground  of  the  hard  and  fast  doctrines 
of  atheism  accepted  by  the  latter  as  part  of 
the  official  creed  and  virtually  enforced  upon 
members.  It  is  not,  however,  a  confessional 
union,  for  it  does  not  profess  nor  insist  upon 
any  particular  form  of  creed,  and  tends  on 
the  whole  to  work  with  the  Democratic  Union 
locally  whenever  the  latter  succeeds  in  divorc- 
ing itself  locally  from  its  general  political 
propaganda.  The  Hirsch-Duncker  Union, 
organised  roughly  on  the  lines  of  the  English 
unions,  but  holding  more  strictly  aloof  from 
political  propaganda,  has  a  membership  of 
about  110,000,  and  its  numbers,  according  to 
the  latest  available  figures,  appear  to  be 
upon  the  decrease.  The  Hirsch-Duncker 
Union,  however,  appears  to  include  the  highest 
class  of  workmen,  and  it  also  possesses  a 
system  of  insurance  against  unemployment, 
at  present  a  nut  the  imperial  government 
confesses  itself  unable  to  crack.  The  figures 
on  the  following  page  show  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  unions. 

In  addition  to  the  three  chief  centralised 
unions  there  is  a  group  of  "  Independent 
Unions"  with  approximately  750,000  members, 
another  group  of  "  Economically  peaceful 
Unions  "  (Wirtschaftsfriedliche  Vereine)  with 
150,000  members,  and  some  small  local  organ- 
isations with  about  7,000  members.  Finally, 
there  are  a  large  number  of  "  Confessional 


ORGANIZATION    OF    INDUSTRY   181 


Name  of  Unions. 

Socialist. 

Hirsch.  D. 

Christian. 

Membership,  1911 

2,339,785 

107,743 

340,957 

Funds  at  end  of 
1911     .. 

£3,000,000 

£200,000 

£350,000 

Income 

£3,600,000 

£130,000 

£310,000 

Expenditure 
Sick  pay,  etc. 

£600,000 

£40,000 

£50,000 

Unemployment  .  . 

£300,000 

£10,000 

£9,000 

Strikes 

£850,000 

(abroad    £30.000) 

£17,000 

£60,000 

Propaganda 

£120,000 

£10,000 

— 

Management,  Cen- 
tral and  Local 

£500,000 

£20,000 

£12.000 

Unions,"       registering      altogether      700,000 
members. 

The  total  number  of  organized  workmen 
in  1911  (excluding  the  confessional  unions, 
which  apparently  sometimes  overlap  with  the 
others)  was  3,791,665  and  their  total  income 
£4,000,000.  The  total  number  of  adults  of  both 
sexes  employed  in  businesses  subject  to 
inspection  was  5,639,258.  In  addition  there 
were  employed  489,000  girls  under  21,  476,000 


182         GERMANY   OF    TO-DAY 

girls  and  boys  between  14  and  16,  and  12,000 
children  under  14. 

For  the  sake  of  completeness  it  may  be 
added  that  there  were  in  1911  2,566  strikes, 
affecting  10,000  firms  and  600,000  workmen. 
Combinations  of  employers  for  mutual  assist- 
ance against  strikes,  and  so  forth,  are  less 
closely  knit  in  Germany  than  in  some  other 
countries,  and  they  have  not  yet  centralised 
their  affairs  or  reached  the  stage  of  appointing 
a  central  committee.  In  1912  employers* 
combinations  numbered  rather  more  than 
3,000,  embracing  about  180,000  members.  In 
the  spring  of  1913  the  two  principal  combina- 
tions, the  "  Haupstelle  Deutscher  Arbeit- 
geberverbande,"  representing  the  leading 
union  of  large  concerns,  and  the  "  Verein 
Deutscher  Arbeitgeberverbande,"  representing 
the  middle-sized  concerns,  were  combined  for 
defensive  purposes,  the  event  being  considered 
one  of  great  significance. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY 

ALTHOUGH  Germany  has  developed  into  an 
industrial  instead  of  a  mainly  agricultural 
nation,  industry  occupying  at  the  present 
time  about  42  per  cent,  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion, there  is  stitt  a  large  population  occupied 
with  agriculture.  The  change,  however,  is 
sufficiently  striking,  for  at  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  over  80  per  cent,  of 
the  population  was  agricultural ;  to-day  less 
than  thirty  per  cent,  is  so  occupied.  Even  in 
1895  the  proportion  was  still  36  per  cent.,  and 
ten  years  earlier  42  per  cent.  Of  the  17,000,000 
now  reckoned  to  the  agricultural  population 
rather  more  than  2,000,000  are  landed  pro- 
prietors, great  or  small,  whilst  less  than 
150,000  are  farmers  of  leasehold  land.  There 
are  roughly  100,000  agricultural  officials, 
over  3,000,000  agricultural  labourers,  and 
10,000,000  members  of  families  doing  occa- 
sional work  on  the  land  or  simply  belonging 
to  labouring  or  occupiers'  families.  Counting 
labourers'  allotments  there  are  nearly  6,000,000 
separate  agricultural  properties. 
183 


184         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

"  The  German  Empire  will  collapse  without 
firing  a  shot  when  German  agriculture  col- 
lapses." This  assertion  of  the  German  mili- 
tary hero,  Moltke,  may  be  taken  as  the  keynote 
of  the  German  official  attitude  towards 
agriculture.  It  is  true  that  less  than  a  third 
of  the  population  is  concerned  in  agriculture, 
and  that  scarcely  one-eighth  of  this  third,  or 
about  four  in  every  hundred  of  the  population, 
personally  owns  a  share  of  the  soil  great  or 
large,  yet  to  all  appearances  Germany's 
financial  and  customs  policy  as  well  as  the 
political  arrangements  of  many  of  the  States 
are  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  agricul- 
tural population  is  overwhelmingly  the  most 
important  to  the  welfare  of  the  individual 
States  and  of  the  whole  Empire,  and  that 
the  protection  of  agriculture  even  by  measures 
bearing  hardly  upon  the  commercial  and 
industrial  population  is  the  acme  of  political 
wisdom.  "  The  farmers  govern  Prussia  and 
Prussia  governs  Germany  "  is  the  trite  but 
not  very  inaccurate  summary  of  the  situation 
as  it  appears  to  the  workers  in  the  big  towns. 

In  part  no  doubt  it  is  an  honest  belief  that  the 
agricultural  population  is  the  real  backbone 
of  Germany,  which  accounts  for  the  political 
power  of  xorganised  agriculture  in  Prussia 
and  some  other  States,  and  this  although 
the  actual  decrease  in  the  population  engaged 
in  or  supported  by  agriculture  amounts  to 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY     185 

about  50,000  per  annum.  In  part  also  it  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  old  feudal  habit  or 
instinct  which  attributed  chief  weight  to  the 
man  with  "  a  stake  in  the  country,"  the 
landowner  and  big  farmer,  is  still  alive.  In 
part,  finally,  it  may  be  due,  as  is  claimed,  to 
the  fact  that  the  German  Emperor,  the  visible 
impersonification  of  the  German  unity,  is 
identical  with  the  more  nearly  absolute  King 
of  Prussia,  whose  throne  in  turn  is  based  upon 
a  feudal  system  and  the  props  of  whose  throne 
are  thought  to  be  the  great  landlords. 

Politically,  too,  it  is  clear  that  a  bureau- 
cratic Government,  whereof  neither  the  admin- 
istrative nor  the  executive  is  in  any  true  sense 
responsible  to  an  elected  and  representative 
Parliament,  must  base  itself  upon  some  reli- 
able support  in  the  money-voting  chamber, 
and  must  strive  to  make  this  support  perman- 
ent in  numbers  and  voting  power  as  well  as 
to  keep  it  steadilyrepresentative  of  the  desires 
and  wishes  of  the*permanent  Government.  An 
inelastic  system  of  Government  must  be  repre- 
sented by  an  equally  inelastic  .and  certainly 
not  progressive,  therefore  conservative 
majority  in  the  money -voting  house.  This 
appears  to  be  the  essential  feature  not  only  of 
the  Prussian  constitution,  but  also  of  the  whole 
of  German  policy  so  far  as  Prussia  can  con- 
trol it.  Now  this  inelastic,  non-progressive, 
conservative  support  for  the  permanent 


180         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Government  is  to  be  found  almost  alone  in 
the  organised  agricultural  system,  which  has 
replaced  the  organisation,  of  feudalism.  It 
seems  clear  that  the  system  must  necessarily 
be  opposed  practically  and  theoretically  to 
the  industrial  development,  and  therefore 
that  actual  damage  done  administratively 
to  industrial  development  is  not  necessarily 
regarded  by  agriculture  as  an  evil ;  so  that  even 
where  shortsightedness  obviously  prevails  it 
may  actually  come  to  be  regarded  as  patriotic. 
There  is  a  further  point  of  view  from  which 
it  is  possible  to  regard  the  part  played  by 
agriculture  in  the  German  system.  Germany's 
essential  theory  of  the  most  favourable  posi- 
tion for  herself  in  the  world  is  that  of  complete 
self-sufficiency  and  independence,  not  that  of 
international  interdependence.  Her  customs- 
tariff  was  not  conceived  as  a  weapon  for  the 
opening  of  foreign  markets,  but  as  a  wall  to 
defend  her  home  market  against  foreign 
aggression.  So  too,  as  has  been  seen,  the 
essential  feature  of  her  army  organisation  is 
defence  against  aggression,  and  so  too  her 
support  of  agriculture  is  intended  to  maintain 
or  create  independence  of  foreign  countries 
and  foreign  products.  The  German  ideal  is 
that  Germany  should  feed  and  support  her 
own  people,  and  the  colonial  demand  is  in 
reality  a  part  of  this  general  design,  namely 
for  the  possession  of  overflow  departments, 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY     187 

whither  she  can  send  her  surplus  population, 
that  part  which  her  theory  of  independence 
makes  it  impossible  for  her  to  support. 

It  is  clear  therefore  that  German  agricul- 
ture, according  to  this  general  scheme,  must  be 
maintained  at  a  pitch  where  it  is  capable  in 
time  of  urgent  need  of  supplying  with  agri- 
cultural products  all  the  population  of  the 
Empire.  And  it  is  further  natural  that  this 
fixed  scheme  should  be  exploited  by  agricul- 
tural magnates  for  their  own  advantage. 
The  landowners  have  accordingly  made  this 
theory  of  national  independence  their  own,  and 
they  are  always  prepared  to  defend  it.  At  the 
time  of  the  initiation  of  the  new  German  naval 
policy  the  Agrarians,  that  is  the  party  of  the 
landlords,  opposed  the  naval  budget  chiefly 
because  they  thought  that  the  development  of 
an  extensive  naval  policy  implied  the  increase 
of  obligations  abroad  and  a  breach  with  the 
policy  of  concentration  upon  Germany  or, 
as  one  may  perhaps  term  it,  of  German  self- 
containment.  For  a  time  the  "  props  of  the 
Prussian  Throne  "  were  at  variance  with  the 
Emperor  himself  regarding  the  naval  policy, 
and  the  reconciliation  did  not  follow  until 
certain  of  the  Emperor's  friends  had  succeeded 
in  convincing  the  leaders  of  the  Agrarian 
party  that  no  breach  with  the  self-contain- 
ment policy  was  intended. 

Similarly  the   Agrarians   of  East  Prussia 


188         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

have  steadily  opposed  the  canal  scheme,  which 
was  intended  to  cheapen  and  facilitate  the 
exchange  of  products  between  the  agricul- 
tural east  and  the  industrial  west.  The 
Agrarians  thought  that  the  canal  would  affect 
their  monopoly  of  agricultural  supply  as 
against  foreign  countries  and  that  the  eastern 
provinces  would  be  flooded  with  cheap  foreign 
produce  brought  by  canal.  In  consequence 
of  their  opposition  to  the  project,  which  was 
warmly  supported  by  the  Emperor,  represen- 
tatives of  Agrarian  interests  at  court  and  in 
the  civil  service  fell  into  disgrace. 

These  two  instances  may  serve  to  show 
the  extent  to  which  the  Agrarian  party  is 
prepared  to  go  in  its  opposition  to  international 
interdependence.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  Agrarians  are  led  by  the  East  Prus- 
sian aristocracy  and  that  the  civil  service 
and  the  posts  at  court,  honorary  and  salaried, 
are  largely  occupied  by  members  of  Agrarian 
families.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed 
that  this  influence  of  the  agricultural  magnates 
can  be  exercised  solely  by  a  few  large  land- 
owners in  Eastern  Prussia,  aided  by  relatives 
in  court  or  civil  service  posts.  There  is  a 
political  organisation  behind  the  influence 
wielded  by  Agrarianism,  and  though  its 
methods  may  be  and  frequently  are  challenged 
it  is  hardly  less  effective  an  organization  than 
that  of  the  Social  Democracy. 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY      189 

Apart  from  the  general  tendency  to  provide 
appointments  as  officers  for  sons  of  landed 
gentry,  or  to  find  them  billets  in  the  civil 
service,  and  otherwise  to  show  for  the  families 
with  landed  property  fostering  care,  going 
sometimes  to  violent  extremes,  there  is  also 
a  still  more  pronounced  tendency  to  protect 
the  interests  of  agriculture  in  every  branch  of 
legislation.  The  general  tendency  of  the 
German  customs  system  (a  tendency  which 
is  not  entirely  carried  into  effect)  is  to  prohibit 
the  import  of  foreign  agricultural  produce. 
The  duties  appear  at  least  to  be  raised  more 
with  a  view  to  their  prohibitive  effect 
than  as  a  means  of  raising  revenue.  In  the 
case  of  certain  products,  such  as  fodder  for 
cattle,  the  result  of  the  prohibition  is  of  no 
benefit  whatever  to  the  small  farmer  but 
rather  the  reverse  :  he  is  not  as  a  rule  in  a 
position  to  store  fodder,  and  since  he  cannot 
obtain  it  cheaply,  a  bad  season  for  fodder  in 
Germany  compels  him  to  sell  off  his  cattle 
in  the  autumn  to  avoid  the  expense  of  keeping 
them  over  the  winter.  For  a  time  meat  may 
thus  be  cheapened,  but  the  result  in  a  few 
months  becomes  apparent  in  a  rapid  rise  in 
the  prices,  especially  of  veal,  beef  and  pork, 
the  staple  articles  of  German  consumption. 

The  small  farmer  is  not  in  the  least  profited 
by  the  high  prices,  which  go  into  the  pockets 
of  the  big  cattle  farmers  and  the  middlemen. 


190         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

It  is  plain  that  all  increase  of  expense  in 
food  must  react  unfavourably  upon  industry 
unless  the  whole  of  the  agricultural  population 
of  Germany  is  profiting  so  far  by  the  rise  of 
price  that  their  demand  for  industrial  products 
is  increased.  It  is  also  evident  that,  on  the 
widest  view  of  them,  not  all  the  measures 
taken  in  Germany  nominally  for  the  protec- 
tion of  agriculture  have  this  general  effect. 
Hence  arises  the  complaint  that  the  agricul- 
tural tariff  in  general  benefits  the  large 
estates,  and  not  the  peasants  or  small  farmers. 
The  case  of  fodder  is  only  quoted  as  one 
illustration  of  developments  which  appear  to 
recur  at  intervals  of  a  few  years  in  Germany, 
and  which  hardly  admit  of  argument  as 
between  Free  Trade  and  Protection  regarded  as 
general  economic  principles.  The  importation 
of  live  cattle  is  subjected  to  restrictions  which 
are  not  far  from  constituting  prohibition  ;  the 
importation  of  frozen  meat  was  prevented 
until  recently  by  veterinary  precautions,  and 
is  still  subjected  to  high  duties ;  cornstuffs 
are  heavily  taxed  upon  introduction,  and  so 
also  are  mill  by-products. 

But  even  in  matters  of  taxation  precautions 
are  always  taken  that  the  pressure  shall  not 
fall  too  heavily  upon  agricultural  land  or  upon 
the  landed  families.  The  long  fight  against 
the  introduction  of  inheritance  duties  has  so 
far  always  resulted  in  a  victory  for  the 


AGRICULTURAL    GERMANY      191 

opposing  Agrarians :  capital  invested  in 
agriculture  and  income  derived  therefrom 
has  a  way  of  escaping  the  vigilance  of  the 
tax-commissioners,  and  even  the  police  are 
wont  to  appear  somewhat  blind  to  lack  of 
papers  of  identification  or  other  omissions  of 
a  similar  character  if  the  offenders  happen  to  be 
able-bodied  employees  of  big  estates.  In 
general  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  agriculture 
occupies  a  privileged  position  in  Germany, 
but  more  particularly  in  North  Germany  : 
it  has,  however,  to  be  added  that  this  privileged 
position  is  not  entirely  due  to  remnants  of 
feudalism  or  solely  to  the  influence  of  the  big 
country  families.  It  is  also  based,  as  has 
been  stated,  upon  the  theory  that  the  agricul- 
tural population  is  the  backbone  of  the 
modern  Empire,  and  that  "  German  agricul- 
ture must  and  can  feed  the  whole  of  the 
population  of  Germany  "  (Emperor  at  Agri- 
cultural Yearly  Assembly  in  Berlin,  1913). 

The  main  influence,  however,  as  we  have 
seen,  must  be  attributed  to  the  large  estates 
in  East  Prussia  and  Mecklenburg.  Here  are 
the  big  estates,  whilst  Baden,  Bavaria  and 
the  Rhineland  have  for  the  most  part  small 
estates,  in  the  case  of  Baden  so  small  as 
actually  to  be  a  disadvantage.  There  is, 
however,  a  certain  reason  for  this  distribution. 
East  Prussia  is  not  very  fertile,  and  to  make 
agriculture  profitable  it  has  to  be  "  extensive," 


192         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

just  as  is  much  of  the  cultivation  of  the  sugar- 
beet,  which  is  characteristic  of  the  central 
portion  of  northern  Germany.  In  the  coun- 
tries with  very  small  estates  it  will  usually  be 
found,  as  in  Baden  and  the  Rhineland,  that 
the  produce  is  largely  of  grapes,  or  that  the 
soil  is  rich  and  nature  lavish,  as  in  a  great  part 
of  Bavaria.  This  distribution  of  the  agricul- 
ture of  Germany  may  be  easiest  shown  from 
the  figures  of  the  Statistical  Department. 

The  actual  surface  under  agriculture  (in- 
cluding viti-culture)  is  about  80,000,000  acres, 
excluding  forest  land  and  waste  land  not 
supporting  cattle.  Five  per  cent.,  or  about 
4,000,000  acres,  is  divided  into  small  holdings 
of  less  than  five  acres  each.  Of  these  small 
holdings  one-third  is  vine-growing  land,  and 
another  third  is  garden  land.  Of  the  next 
largest  holdings,  up  to  ten  acres,  rather  more 
than  one-third  is  vineyard  and  ten  per  cent,  is 
in  corn  land.  The  middle-sized  holdings  up 
to  fifty  acres  show  still  one-third  vineyard, 
and  one-third  corn  land.  Of  the  big  estates 
up  to  250  acres  one  quarter  is  in  sugar  beet, 
a  third  corn  land,  five  per  cent,  vineyard,  and 
the  rest  roots,  and  so  forth.  The  biggest 
estates  of  all,  300  acres  and  beyond,  are  58 
per  cent,  sugar  beet,  and  only  20  per  cent,  corn 
land.  These  are  the  huge  North  German 
properties  of  the  "  sugar-barons,"  as  the 
Socialist  press  usually  describes  them.  The 


AGRICULTURAL    GERMANY      193 

biggest  estates  include  nearly  one  quarter  of 
all  the  agricultural  land  in  Germany,  the  250 
acre  estates  make  up  one-third,  and  the 
medium  estates  (up  to  50  acres)  also  about 
one-third. 

The  majority  of  the  big  estates  are  in 
East  and  West  Prussia,  Silesia,  Saxony, 
Mecklenburg,  and  Pomerania.  In  Mecklen- 
burg-Schwerin,  for  example,  sixty  per  cent, 
of  all  agricultural  land  is  in  the  hands  of 
proprietors  with  the  largest  estates  (over 
250  acres),  whilst  only  fourteen  per  cent,  is 
in  the  hands  of  farmers  with  less  than  50 
acres.  In  East  Prussia  38  per  cent,  is  held  by 
farmers  of  over  250  acres,  in  Pomerania 
53  per  cent.,  and  in  Posen  46  per  cent.  In 
general  in  the  South-German  and  Rhenish 
Provinces  and  States  from  forty  to  fifty  per 
cent,  of  the  land  is  in  holdings  of  between 
twelve  and  fifty  acres.  By  way  of  contrast  it 
may  be  noted  that  in  Wiirttemberg,  Baden  and 
Bavaria,  only  from  one  to  two  per  cent,  of  the 
land  is  held  in  the  big  estates.  The  smallest 
"  parcel  "  estates  other  than  vineyard  are 
usually  producers  of  tobacco  or  fruit. 

From  the  above  figures  it  will  be  clear  first 
that  the  greater  part  of  German  agricultural 
land  is  not  contained  in  the  large  estates 
of  the  north  and  east;  secondly,  that  the 
customs  and  other  privileges  which  advantage 
the  big  estates,  are  not  therefore  advantages 


194          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

necessarily  to  the  great  bulk  of  German  agri- 
culture ;  and  that  where  certain  features  of 
German  agriculture  can  be  shown  to  be  disad- 
vantageous to  the  small  holdings  or  medium 
farms,  the  greater  portion  of  German  agricul- 
ture is  thereby  disadvantageously  affected.  In 
the  south  and  west  the  political  organization 
controlling  the  agricultural  vote  is  very  largely 
Catholic  :  in  the  north  and  east  it  is  Prussian- 
Conservative. 

We  have  hitherto  considered  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  population  owning  land  (in  Germany 
the  renting  of  land  is  of  comparatively  little 
importance  :  there  are  only  130,000  rented 
farms  as  against  over  2,000,000  proprietors) : 
the  condition  of  the  hired  labourers  is  another 
matter.  Of  these  there  are  approximately 
3,000,000,  and  the  majority  are  employed,  of 
course,  on  the  "  extensive  "  northern  estates. 
If  it  be  remembered  that  little  more  than  a 
century  ago  feudal  serfdom  was  still  not  only 
actually  but  legally  the  condition  of  the 
agricultural  population  of  Prussia  (serfdom 
was  abolished  by  the  edict  of  October  9,  1807), 
it  will  be  understood  that  the  uses  and  abuses 
connected  with  serfdom  have  not  all  entirely 
disappeared  within  a  century.  The  mal- 
treatment of  agricultural  labourers,  chicanerie 
in  connection  with  the  payment  of  wages  in 
money  and  kind,  and  particularly  monstrous 
abuses  in  connection  with  the  electoral  laws, 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY      195 

are  still  subjects  of  complaint,  though  it  must 
be  added  that  the  actual  physical  maltreatment 
of  labourers  is  less  frequently  reported.  But 
it  probably  required  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  the  Empire,  with  the  threatening 
depopulation  of  the  country,  and  the  rush  to 
the  industrial  centres  to  put  an  end  to  the 
period  of  de  facto  serfdom.  It  was  and  is  the 
drainage  of  labour  to  the  towns  which  pro- 
duced, or  is  producing  tolerable  conditions  of 
life  for  the  labourers  on  the  big  estates,  since 
the  landowners  in  their  own  interests  must 
do  something  to  stop  the  drainage. 

Labour  organization  has  made  but  little 
progress  in  the  country,  and  the  Social 
Democracy  admits  its  lack  of  success. 
Naturally  every  kind  of  obstacle  is  put  in  its 
way.  Innkeepers  who  permit  the  use  of  their 
establishments  for  Socialist  meetings  suffer 
from  the  marked  displeasure  of  the  local 
magnates,  and  are  thereby  commended  to  the 
especial  vigilance  of  the  local  police  ;  labourers 
who  join  the  organization  are  subjected  to 
innumerable  petty  tyrannies.  Moreover,  the 
"  secret  ballot "  for  the  Reichstag  is  made  a 
farce  by  the  employment  of  utterly  illegal 
receptacles  as  ballot-boxes  :  old  cigar-boxes, 
worn-out  chimneypot  hats,  soup-tureens  and 
biscuit-boxes  have  been  employed  by  the 
"  proper  authority  "  to  hold  the  voting  papers, 
not  because  the  proper  authority  (that  is  the 


196         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

local  squire)  is  too  lazy  to  obtain  a  proper  box, 
but  because  these  quaint  receptacles  enable 
the  committee  controlling  the  voters  to  place 
the  votes  nicely  one  upon  another,  and  thus 
to  keep  an  exact  check  of  the  way  in  which 
each  vote  is  cast.  The  Government  has  now 
introduced  a  measure  under  public  pressure 
compelling  the  use  of  uniform  ballot-boxes 
throughout  the  Empire,  but  the  above  is  only 
one  of  innumerable  abuses  each  of  which  has 
to  be  revealed,  denounced,  and  often  made 
the  subject  of  public  demonstrations  before 
it  is  removed.  Such  abuses  show,  however, 
clearly  enough  the  real  condition  of  the 
dependent  agricultural  population. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  influence  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  in  South  Germany  is  little  less 
reactionary  than  that  of  the  Junkers  in  the 
north,  except  that  the  former  utilise  mental 
pressure  and  the  force  of  unenlightened 
superstition  to  control  the  voters.  Hence, 
it  is  asserted,  the  Catholic  or  Centrist  party 
has  an  almost  impregnable  position,  whereas 
even  the  next  most  impregnable,  that  of  the 
Conservatives,  is  sometimes  shaken  by  general 
elections. 

At  the  end  of  the  last  century  the  daily 
wage  of  an  agricultural  labourer,  taking 
the  average  for  all  Germany,  was  about 
twenty  pence  :  to-day  it  is  about  two  shillings. 
It  is  lowest  in  East  Prussia,  where  the  daily 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY      197 

wage  is  probably  still  not  more  than  about 
eighteenpence,  and  it  is  highest  in  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  where  it  reaches  nearly  half-a-crown. 
According  to  recent  calculations  a  labourer 
whose  wife  also  does  field-work  can  make  an 
income  of  from  £40  to  £45  per  annum.  A 
family  with  three  full  workers  may  make  as 
much  as  £75.  To  this,  however,  has  to  be 
added  some  small  payment  in  kind  or  the 
produce  from  a  chicken-run  and  goose- 
breeding,  and  a  certain  amount  of  garden 
produce.  On  the  big  estates,  particularly 
those  devoted  to  the  sugar-beet,  work  is  more 
seasonal  than  elsewhere,  and  the  result  is 
that  whilst  at  times  the  employers  are  glad 
of  all  the  labour  they  can  get,  at  other  times 
there  is  no  work  available,  even  for  the  small 
village  populations.  This  results  in  the  em- 
ployment very  largely  of  foreign  seasonal 
labour.  More  than  700,000  foreign  labourers 
come  to  Germany  at  certain  seasons  every 
year,  and  about  sixty  per  cent,  of  these  are 
employed  in  agriculture.  The  average  wage 
of  a  foreign  seasonal  labourer  is  for  a  male 
from  2s.  2d.  in  East  Prussia  to  3s.  6d.  in 
Schleswig-Holstein,  and  for  a  female  from 
Is.  2d.  in  Silesia  to  Is.  lOd.  in  Schleswig- 
Holstein.  The  annual  influx  of  low-grade, 
often  wholly  illiterate,  and  sometimes  semi- 
savage  seasonal  labour  from  abroad  is  always 
pointed  to  as  one  of  the  most  disastrous 


198         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

features    of    the    development    of    German 
agricultural  conditions. 

It  appears  to  be  agreed  that  whilst  in 
Baden  and  in  certain  other  parts  of  South  and 
West  Germany,  the  "  parcelling  process " 
has  been  carried  too  far  for  the  general  ad- 
vantage of  the  country,  the  driving  of  the 
peasant  from  the  land  is  an  equally  great  evil 
in  much  of  the  north  and  east.  The  remedy, 
it  is  thought,  may  be  found  in  the  south  by 
an  increase  of  the  principle  of  the  right  of 
primogeniture,  as  a  compulsory  legal  institu- 
tion, and  in  the  north  by  the  diminution  of  the 
privilege  of  converting  large  properties  into 
entailed  estates  (Fidei  Kommisse).  The  en- 
tailment  of  small  properties  upon  the  eldest 
son  instead  of  its  division  amongst  several 
children  or  sale  for  the  purpose  of  dividing 
the  proceeds,  and  still  more  the  maintenance 
of  peasant  properties  intact  and  undivided 
(co-heirs  being  bought  out  or  otherwise 
compensated),  have  been  adopted  in  some 
districts  as  compulsory  legal  principles  ;  they 
are  also  wide-spread  as  peasant  custom  not 
based  upon  codified  laws.  The  subdivision 
of  properties  in  France  AS  a  consequence  of 
the  "  extremely  equal  inheritance  laws  "  of 
that  country  are  not  infrequently  pointed  to  by 
German  writers  as  one  cause  of  her  falling 
birth-rate.  They  quote  an  observation  attri- 
buted to  Lord  Castlereagh  at  a  political  dinner, 


AGRICULTURAL    GERMANY      199 

'*  Gentlemen,  we  will  leave  to  their  own  laws 
of  inheritance  the  task  of  finally  dealing  with 
the  French." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Reichstag  has 
frequently  attempted  to  secure  an  imperial 
regulation  of  the  entailment  system,  which  is 
particularly  extensive  in  Silesia  and  in  the  pro- 
vinces of  Brandenburg,  Pomerania,  and  Posen. 
In  the  last  nine  years  the  number  of  such 
entailed  estates  has  increased  by  116  and  the 
extent  by  nearly  half  a  million  acres.  There 
are  over  1,200  such  estates  in  Prussia  with 
total  acreage  of  approximately  5,000,000. 
(It  should  be  added,  however,  that  entailment 
is  less  in  proportionate  extent  than  in  Eng- 
land.) In  April,  1913,  the  Reichstag  passed 
a  resolution  brought  forward  on  behalf 
of  the  Radicals  inviting  the  Chancellor  to 
lay  before  the  House  a  bill  "  to  forbid  abso- 
lutely the  creation  of  further  entailments 
or  the  increase  of  those  already  existing, 
and  to  provide  for  the  breaking  up  of  estates 
already  entailed."  It  is  thought  that  the 
consequence  of  this  resolution  may  be  the 
acceptance  of  responsibility  for  some  preven- 
tive legislation  by  the  Prussian  Diet ;  and  it 
appears  to  be  admitted  even  by  the  Conserva- 
tives that  further  tying-up  of  land  is  far  from 
being  in  the  interests  of  the  Agrarians  them- 
selves, chiefly  because  in  the  last  fifty  years 
the  creation  of  these  entailed  estates  has  been 


200         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

largely  effected  with  capital  made  by  business 
men  in  industry  and  has  therefore  no  longer 
any  connection  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
old  landed  nobility  and  gentry.  It  is  pointed 
out,  too,  by  the  economists  that  about  half 
of  the  land  entailed  in  Prussia  is  forest-land, 
not  corn  or  sugar-beet. 

The  gospel  of  German  Agrarianism  is  stated 
by  von  Riimker  ("  Die  Ernahrung  unsres 
Volkes  aus  eigner  Produktion,"  pub.  1912), 
as  follows  :  "  Germany's  armaments  by  land 
and  sea  and  her  industrial  and  commercial 
development  are  pointless  and  hopeless  from 
the  national  standpoint  except  upon  the 
basis  of  Germany's  national  ability  to  feed 
her  own  population."  The  task  thus  set 
before  the  nation  (which  the  Emperor  said 
could  and  must  be  performed)  is  stated  to  be 
the  increase  of  corn-production  by  about 
fifteen  per  cent.,  and  of  meat  by  about  five 
per  cent.  These  figures  are,  however,  a  little 
misleading,  because  they  assume  that  the 
increase  of  consumption  will  not  be  continued 
at  the  same  rate  or  at  even  nearly  the  same 
rate  as  in  recent  years.  The  consumption  of 
wheat  and  spelt  has  risen,  for  instance,  since 
1885  from  about  140  Ibs.  per  head  of  popula- 
tion to  about  200  Ibs.  The  consumption  of 
rye  has  not  increased  so  considerably,  chiefly, 
no  doubt,  owing  to  the  manifest  increase  in 
the  use  of  wheaten-bread.  The  consumption 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY      201 

of  barley  has  increased  from  120  Ibs.  to  168  Ibs., 
and  that  of  oats  from  200  Ibs.  to  250  Ibs.  It  is 
stated  that  the  amount  of  rye,  wheat,  and  spelt, 
the  breadstuffs  which  Germany  is  obliged  to 
import  for  her  own  consumption  annually,  is 
from  1,500,000  to  2,000,000  tons.  Count 
Schwerin-Lowitz  stated  in  the  Reichstag  (May 
17th,  1912)  that,  deducting  the  amount  of  rye 
now  exported  from  Germany,  the  total  deficit 
was  not  more  than  1,500,000  tons.  "  This 
deficit  could  be  completely  covered  if  on  the 
20,000,000  acres  of  land  where  we  now  grow 
wheat,  rye,  and  spelt,  we  were  to  grow  as  little 
as  one  hundredweight  more  per  morgen. 
People  may  say  that  it  is  impossible  to  grow 
an  additional  hundredweight  per  morgen, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  have  increased  the 
production  in  the  last  twenty-five  years  by 
half  a  ton  to  every  two  and  a  half  acres.  In 
the  last  ten  years  the  increase  has  been  a 
hundredweight  and  a  half  to  every  morgen." 
(The  figures  in  the  above  are  approximate.  The 
German  text  reads  in  hektars  and  morgen.  A 
hektar  is  a  little  less  than  two  and  a  half  acres 
and  a  morgen  is  about  five-eighths  of  an  acre.) 
That  is  the  economic  gospel  of  German 
Agrarianism  stated  epigrammatically.  The 
speaker  also  declared  that  by  intensive 
cultivation  peasant  properties  produce  nearly 
six  hundredweight  more  to  the  acre  than 
the  average  (rye,  8  cwt.  per  morgen)  for  the 


202          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

whole  Empire.  Dr.  Frost,  however,  points 
out  that  climatic  and  soil  conditions  make 
it  highly  improbable  that  German  agriculture 
can  replace  the  imported  bread-corn  by  grow- 
ing more  wheat.  "  It  would,  however,  be 
a  gigantic  success  if  the  German  rye  produc- 
tion could  make  up  the  deficit  in  question. 
We  should  then  at  least  have  the  possibility 
of  falling  back  upon  an  increased  rye  consump- 
tion in  case  of  need."  However  economically 
mistaken  such  calculations  may  be  they,  at 
any  rate,  show  sufficiently  clearly  what  is  the 
problem  which  agriculture  sets  itself  in  Ger- 
many, and  it  must  be  supposed,  judging 
from  appearances  to  which  reference  has 
already  been  made,  that  it  is  the  problem 
also  set  itself  by  the  Government.  The 
increased  production  of  meat  is  quoted  as 
about  300,000  tons  between  1904  and  1910, 
the  importation  of  foreign  meat  in  1910  being 
about  140,000  tons.  It  is  thus  made  to 
appear  a  simple  matter  to  provide  in  Germany 
the  additional  quantity  of  meat  required 
by  the  population  as  it  stands  at  present; 
but  the  admitted  failure  of  the  German  meat- 
supply  in  1912,  and  the  necessity  under  which 
the  Government  found  itself  of  facilitating 
the  importation  of  meat  from  abroad  by 
decreasing  the  railway  rates  and  lessening 
the  frontier  restrictions,  would  not  appear  to 
confirm  the  agricultural  view. 


.    AGRICULTURAL    GERMANY      203 

The  effect  of  divorcing  Germany  from  the 
"  fluctuations  "  of  the  world-market  for  food- 
stuffs is  apparently  admitted  to  have  been 
an  increase  of  prices,  particularly  in  districts  at 
a  distance  from  the  centres  of  production, 
that  is,  industrial  districts.  Hence  the  prices 
of  food-stuffs  produced  in  Germany  vary 
greatly  in  different  towns.  Rye,  for  example, 
shows  a  difference  of  £2  per  ton  between 
Silesia  and  Bavaria  ;  wheat  shows  a  difference 
of  about  38s.  between  the  same  districts ; 
barley,  between  East  Prussia  and  Bavaria, 
£3  3s.,  and  so  forth.  To  combat  this  effect 
the  Government  are  constantly  engaged 
in  efforts  to  cheapen  the  cost  of  inland  trans- 
port, and  to  this  may  be  attributed  in  part 
the  rapid  development  of  canalisation  of 
rivers  and  construction  of  artificial  waterways 
and  light  railways.  Mannheim,  thanks  to 
its  natural  and  artificial  waterway  provision, 
is  one  of  the  chief  centres  of  the  European 
corn  trade,  and  that  which  Mannheim  has 
naturally  the  Government  desires  to  give 
to  other  German  towns  in  some  degree 
artificially,  it  being  clear  that  Mannheim 
owes  its  corn  trade  very  largely  to  its  water 
access.  In  addition,  various  schemes  are 
devised  for  reducing  "  middlemen's  profits." 
that  is  of  bringing  the  food-stuffs  as  directly 
as  possible  from  farmer  to  consumer. 

The  main  question,  however,  is  not  that  of 


204         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

cheapening  existing  prices,  but  of  increasing 
or  cheapening  production,  and  especially 
of  replacing  the  annual  drain  from  the  land. 
The  use  of  machinery,  and  particularly 
the  development  of  electric-driven  agricultural 
machinery,  is  one,  and,  of  course,  one  of  the 
most  important  forms  of  this  process.  Recent 
statistics  of  the  employment  of  electricity 
in  agriculture  were  not  available  at  the  time 
of  writing,  but  the  increase  in  the  use  of 
steam  machinery  in  the  last  ten  years  is  an 
interesting  illustration  of  technical  develop- 
ment. The  number  of  steam  threshing 
machines,  for  instance,  was  doubled  (250,000 
to  500,000),  and  of  steam  ploughs  nearly 
doubled  (1,700  to  3,100).  The  use  of  artificial 
manure,  which  is  greatest,  proportionately 
to  surface,  in  Prussia,  also  shows  an  astonish- 
ing development.  Prussia  used  in  1908  nearly 
1000  Ibs.  of  potash  manure  per  acre,  as 
against  about  100  Ibs.  eighteen  years 
previously,  whilst  the  Bavarian  use  rose  in 
the  same  period  from  about  20  Ibs.  to  nearly 
800  Ibs. 

Another  institution  benefiting  those  engaged 
in  agriculture  is  that  of  the  co-operative 
society,  which  flourishes  greatly  in  Germany. 
In  1911  there  were  some  25,000  societies 
connected  with  agriculture  and  articles  of 
consumption,  with  about  4,000,000  members. 
There  were,  to  take  one  example,  8,193 


AGRICULTURAL   GERMANY     205 

co-operative  dairies  with  288,699  members. 
These  societies  are  for  the  most  part  affiliated 
in  central  unions,  of  which  the  most  important 
are  the  Imperial  Union  (Darmstadt),  the 
Schultze-Delitzsch  Union,  and  the  Raiffeisen 
Union  (Neuwied). 

The  German  customs  tariff  is  chiefly 
determined  to-day  by  the  Agrarian  Gospel 
epitomised  above.  The  tariff  on  the  chief 
agricultural  products  is  as  follows  :  Wheat, 
5s.  6d.  per  100  kilos  ;  rye,  5s.  ;  oats,  5s.  ; 
malt  barley,  4s.  ;  fodder  barley,  Is.  4d.  ; 
maize,  3s.  ;  meal,  10s.  2d.  Live  cattle  pay 
8s.  to  9s.  per  double  hundredweight,  slaugh- 
tered cattle  (meat),  27s.  6d.  per  double 
hundredweight ;  butter,  20s.,  cheese  15s., 
eggs  2s.  There  are  a  number  of  regulations 
regarding  the  production  and  import  of 
saccharine,  margarine,  wine,  etc.,  intended 
to  assist  the  home  producer,  though  they  are 
given  and  in  most  cases  actually  bear  the 
additional  character  of  hygienic  measures. 
One  of  the  commonest  complaints  in  con- 
nection with  the  agricultural  customs  tariff 
is  that  exporters  of  cereals  are  given  certificates 
entitling  them  to  import  similar  or  other 
cereals  free  of  duty.  The  farmers,  it  is  claimed, 
export  cereals  carrying  a  high  duty,  and  import 
cereals  or  fodder  carrying  a  low  duty.  Thus 
by  exporting  oats  at  5s.,  and  importing 
iodder-barley  at  Is.  4d.,  the  farmer  can  make 


206         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

a  big  profit  when  fodder  is  at  a  high  price 
after  a  dry  season,  and  this  profit  is  not  pro- 
perly an  agricultural  profit  at  all,  but  a  profit 
wholly  unintended  by  the  customs  law,  and 
also  a  direct  encouragement  to  the  export  of 
bread  cereals,  a  result  certainly  not  intended 
even  by  the  Agrarian  Gospel. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  added  that  the 
value  of  the  agricultural  products  of  Germany 
is  reckoned  roughly  at  the  following  figures  : 
Dairy  produce,  £142,000,000 ;  sugar, 
£31,000,000  ;  cattle  and  by-products  thereof, 
£200,000,000 ;  other  products  about 
£200,000,000.  It  follows  that  the  total  value 
of  German  agricultural  produce  of  all  kinds 
would  be  placed  according  to  this  calculation 
at  between  £500,000,000  and  £600,000,000. 
In  1902  it  was  estimated  (Muller,  "  Industrie- 
staat  oder  Agrarstaat,"  1902),  at  seven  and 
a  half  milliards  of  marks,  that  is  £375,000,000, 
so  that  the  value  to-day  is  perhaps  rather 
less  than  the  amount  suggested  above. 


CHAPTER   IX 

CASTES   AND   CLASSES 

THE  change  which  has  come  over  Germany, 
with  her  sudden  development  from  an  agricul- 
tural to  an  industrial  country,  could  not 
remain  without  its  effect  on  the  character 
of  the  inhabitants  and  their  occupations  in 
leisure  hours.  Thirty  years  ago  the  country, 
even  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
Berlin,  was  a  treasure-house  of  quaint  and 
delightful  customs,  relics  of  heathendom  and 
of  early  Christianity ;  to-day  it  may  still 
be  possible  to  find  here  and  there  a  rare 
"  manner  "  or  a  quaint  "  custom."  In  the 
open  country  near  the  Vistula  corn  is  still 
ground  with  a  stone  hand-mill,  and  the  bread 
baked  in  an  open-air  "  parish  bakehouse," 
and  the  fishermen  still  ply  upon  the  river  in 
canoes  hollowed  out  of  tree-trunks.  In 
Southern  Germany  there  are  districts  to 
which  the  railway  has  not  yet  penetrated, 
and  where  the  yellow  post  chaise  still  runs 
on  its  huge  wheels.  In  the  valleys  running 
up  from  the  Rhine  and  Moselle  into  the  hills 
207 


208         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

one  may  still  see  the  burning  wheel  hurtle 
down  into  the  stream  from  a  hill  top  at  the 
turning  of  the  year,  and  it  is  but  a  few  weeks 
since  there  was  a  veritable  witch-burning  in 
Silesia. 

But  now  the  old  customs  must  be  searched 
for  diligently,  and  happy  he  that  can  still 
find  them.  The  old  cities  of  the  Rhineland 
lose  their  beautiful  timbered  houses  and  their 
Gothic  gables  before  the  devastating  horde  of 
flat-builders,  and  the  old  country-dances  under 
the  trees  or  in  the  "  Spiel-huise  "  make  way 
for  the  Tango  and  Turkey-trot  of  the  local 
palais  de  danse.  In  Germany,  to  put  the 
matter  succinctly,  we  are  watching  the  loss  of 
an  old  civilisation  and  the  transfer  to  a  new, 
not  only  in  a  shorter  period  of  time  than  has 
happened  elsewhere,  but  also  with  a  violence 
of  wrench  which  sets  us  gasping.  German 
society  in  town  and  country  is  adopting 
extreme  modernism  and  international  ways 
of  life  and  thought  after  having  retained  the 
ancient  ways  longer  than  the  rest  of  the  world. 
The  development  of  Germany  strikes  us  as 
resembling  a  syllogism  with  all  the  middle 
clauses  suppressed.  Thus  one  finds  in  German 
society  not  only  all  the  stages  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  associate  with  centuries  of  develop- 
ment, but  also  a  large  number  of  imitative 
excrescences  which  seem  out  of  keeping  with 
the  German  character  as  a  whole.  Side  by 


CASTES   AND    CLASSES          209 

side  with  expensive  efforts  to  raise  the  capital 
of  the  Empire  to  an  "  international  cosmopo- 
lis  "  like  Paris,  and  with  tendencies  to  intro- 
duce French  titles  for  German  products, 
there  is  also  a  violent  protestantism  which 
objects  to  biscuits  being  called  "  cakes " 
in  Germany,  because  "  cakes "  is  not  a 
German  word,  and  which  therefore  adopts  the 
Germanised  "  keks "  !  Town-planning  is 
developed  along  lines  which  would  be  almost 
beautiful  if  it  were  not  for  the  survival  of  the 
worst  horrors  of  the  stucco  period ;  and  the 
country  costumes  of  the  Spree wald  jostle 
in  the  Berlin  parks  with  the  latest  absurdities 
of  the  Paris  mode  worn  by  ladies  whom  the 
mode  does  not  suit. 

But  the  most  prominent  feature  of  German 
society  of  the  present  day  is  a  corollary  of  the 
paternal  system  of  Government,  namely  the 
supremacy  of  the  official  caste.  In  town  and 
country  the  uniform  is  supreme  and  chiefly 
the  military  uniform,  because  in  Germany  the 
army  is  the  "  senior  service."  Austria,  which 
suffers  from  the  same  obsession,  has  invented 
a  phrase  "  the  witchcraft  of  the  uniform  " 
(Zauber  der  Montur)  to  describe  the  obsession, 
but  the  phrase  is  equally  applicable  to  Ger- 
many. We  have  already  seen  that  failure 
to  pass  school-examinations  is  penalized 
chiefly  by  inability  to  obtain  the  patent  as 
officer  of  the  reserve,  and  this  penalization  is 
o 


210         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

a  social  one,  for  it  affects  in  equal  degree  the 
youth  who  will  later  have  to  struggle  with  his 
equals  for  his  livelihood,  and  the  youth  who  is 
"  born  with  a  silver  spoon  in  his  mouth."  In 
the  social  hierarchy,  then,  it  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that  the  officer  comes  first :  he  is 
followed  by  the  civil  official  in  his  degree,  and 
even  the  civil  officialdom  is  given  a  measure 
of  military  prestige :  the  peaked  cap  of 
officialdom  greets  the  visitor  to  Germany  at 
the  first  customs-house,  and  follows  him  then 
throughout  his  visit. 

Social  caste  is  determined  by  the  position 
of  the  man  or  woman  within  the  official 
hierarchy,  and  inasmuch  as  the  State  has 
taken  for  its  own  proper  sphere  so  many 
departments  of  public  life  and  activity  it  is 
plain  that  the  grades  of  officialdom  are 
infinite,  and  the  ceremonial  observances  con- 
nected with  them  are  as  puzzling  to  the 
stranger  within  the  gates  as  they  are  oft- 
times  absurd,  even  in  the  eyes  of  Germans 
themselves.  There  is  no  need  to  insist 
here  upon  the  well-worn,  perhaps  almost 
threadbare,  jokes  about  the  respective  social 
positions  of  the  wife  of  the  upper  postal 
assistant,  and  her  humbler  sister,  the  wife  of 
a  mere  postal  assistant  without  predicate, 
for  the  German  press  itself  is  sarcastic  enough 
about  these  absurdities,  though  the  condi- 
tions which  could  alone  destroy  the  hierarchy 


CASTES   AND    CLASSES          211 

are  not  present.  It  is  true  that  the  biting 
sarcasm  of  a  Thackeray  has  been  wanting  to 
Germany,  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the 
time  has  yet  come  when  it  would  have  its 
due  effect. 

Next  to  the  official  castes  and  classes  may 
be  ranged  the  variety  of  honorary  or  semi- 
official designations,  the  long  range  of 
"  handles  "  which  represent  much-coveted 
distinctions  without  any  corresponding  func- 
tions in  the  machinery  of  the  State,  or  any 
actual  power  other  than  that  of  prestige. 
The  Councillors  of  Commerce,  Medicine, 
Architecture,  and  so  forth,  are  in  their 
degree  one  stage  less  distinguished  than  those 
who,  to  their  councillorship  add  the  predicate 
"  Privy,"  but  Councillors  and  Privy  Council- 
lors alike  are  apt  to  be  individuals  of  no  very 
remarkable  distinction  socially.  However, 
the  prestige  of  a  title  goes  so  far  that  there  is 
quite  a  competition  for  the  honorary  consular 
representation  of  small  and  undistinguished 
countries  or  principalities,  the  representative 
receiving  in  return  for  his  services  simply  the 
predicate  "  Consul,"  which  appears  to  be 
sufficient  reward  for  not  very  onerous  duties. 
Woe  be  to  him  or  her  who  forgets  the  title 
in  addressing  the  new  dignitary  !  After  the 
titles  come  the  medals  and  various  decora- 
tions in  their  degrees,  to  be  worn  upon  all 
occasions  when  there  is  the  least  excuse  for 


,    212         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

their  production.  In  their  way  medals  and 
decorations  also  are  regarded  as  lifting  the 
lucky  wearer  out  of  the  ruck  of  common  folk, 
and  as  establishing  a  measure  of  social  prestige. 
They  appear  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  honour 
conferred  by  the  State  for  distinguished 
public  service,  and  thus  as  establishing  the 
public  character  of  the  wearer  or  rather  his 
right  to  be  included  vaguely  in  the  machinery 
of  government. 

It  will  be  observed  that  positions  represen- 
tative of  the  public,  memberships  of  the  vari- 
ous elected  representative  bodies,  holderships 
of  positions  actually  representing  electoral 
confidence  are  neither  so  eagerly  sought,  nor 
do  they  carry  the  same  prestige  as  much  less 
important,  and  much  less  actively  influential 
appointments  or  positions  granted  by  the 
State.  The  conclusion  to  which  the  foreign 
observer  is  necessarily  forced  is  that,  socially 
as  well  as  administratively,  the  State,  and  not 
the  people  comprisfng  the  State,  is  vested 
with  the  real  attributes  of  sovereignty.  It  is 
characteristic  that  in  some  of  the  comments 
made  in  the  German  press  at  the  time  when 
members  of  the  English  House  of  Commons 
first  became  salaried  functionaries  this  pay- 
ment of  members,  already  existent  in  Germany, 
was  described  as  a  sign  of  the  approaching 
decay  of  the  idea  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people  in  England. 


CASTES    AND    CLASSES          213 

i 

The  effort  to  maintain  the  hierarchical 
supremacy  of  the  landed  gentry  in  Germany 
shows  signs  at  last  of  weakening.  It  is  still 
true  that  the  sons  and  cousins  and  nephews 
of  German  squires,  particularly  in  Prussia, 
occupy  the  administrative,  diplomatic,  and 
court  posts  ;  it  is  still  true  that  titled  candi- 
dates are  preferred  as  officers  of  the  premier 
regiments  in  the  army,  and  that  in  general  the 
nobility  of  Prussia  forms  the  governing  caste. 
But  it  is  no  longer  true  that  this  nobility  is 
exclusively  the  old  nobility  of  the  feudal  days. 
It  can  be  shown  that  the  German  diplomatic 
service  tends  to  be  opened  to  men  whose 
fathers  were  ennobled  for  services  in  commer- 
cial or  industrial  spheres,  and  that  commerce 
and  industry  are  gradually  forcing  their  way 
into  the  administrative  machinery,  and  thus 
to  the  top  of  the  social  scale.  It  is  also 
true  that  to  some  extent  the  original  feudal 
nobility  is  losing  its  supremacy.  An  interesting 
illustration  might  perhaps  be  found  in  the  old 
nobility  of  Westphalia,  which  more  and  more 
appears  to  divorce  itself  from  the  court  circle, 
and  to  establish  a  kind  of  court  of  its  own, 
centring  round  the  old  noble  "  Hofe "  of 
Miinster. 

The  Emperor  himself  is  frequently  blamed 
for  the  importance  he  attaches  to  the  advice 
of  men  prominent  in  commercial  or  industrial 
life,  and  it  is  said  that  of  all  those  who  are 


214          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

called  his  private  advisers  the  director  of  a 
great  shipping  line  is  the  only  one  who  deserves 
the  title.  It  may,  therefore,  not  be  too  much 
to  say  that  the  Agrarian  and  noble  supremacy 
in  society,  as  in  the  functions  of  State,  is 
rather  more  than  merely  threatened.  But  the 
system  of  castes  and  classes  on  which  German 
society  is  obviously  based,  is  rooted  in  the 
nature  of  the  State-system,  and  though  it  may 
change  in  detail  the  system  appears  likely  to 
withstand  all  the  democratic  shocks  to  which 
it  is  subjected  as  easily  as  it  withstands  the 
shafts  of  satire  and  criticism. 

The  German  people,  as  individuals,  are 
characterized  by  a  great  degree,  not  only  of 
sociability,  but  also  of  apparently  psychologi- 
cal necessity  for  concerted  or  combined  action 
in  all  phases  of  their  social  life.  Possibly  the 
army -training,  whose  effects  we  have  already 
observed  in  industrial  and  political  life,  makes 
itself  felt  here  also :  there  appears  to  be  a 
certain  distaste  for  the  impromptu,  and  Ger- 
mans are  apt  to  circumscribe  the  simplest 
functions  with  a  fence  of  rules,  regulations, 
and  restrictions,  which  may  appear  galling  to 
foreigners,  but  appear  to  excite  very  little 
vexation  amongst  the  Germans  themselves. 
The  taste  for  combination  and  the  dislike  for 
impromptu  and  individual  action  is  best  seen 
in  the  curious  development  of  the  verein, 
association,  or  club. 


CASTES   AND   CLASSES          215 

It  was,  I  think,  a  German  writer  who 
declared  that  if  two  Frenchmen,  two  English- 
men and  two  Germans  were  cast  away  on  three 
different  points  of  a  deserted  island,  the  two 
Frenchmen  would,  within  five  minutes,  be 
discussing  their  respective  amours,  the  English- 
men would  have  climbed  two  hills  and  be 
waiting  for  some  one  to  introduce  them 
across  the  intervening  valley,  whilst  the 
Germans  would  have  founded  a  verein  for  the 
exploration  of  the  island.  The  discussion  of 
the  affairs  of  the  verein  is  one  of  the  first 
topics  which  Germans  have  in  common  every- 
where and  anywhere,  and  they  have  invented 
a  wholly  untranslateable  phrase  for  this  club 
"  shop  " — vereinsmeierei.  Certain  it  is  that 
very  few  German  males  count  less  than  three 
or  four  vereins  to  which  they  belong,  and 
vereins  are  founded  with  very  little  provoca- 
tion or  none.  In  reality  this  is  merely  the 
working  out  of  the  inclination  for  concerted 
action.  For  the  Singleton  the  Germans  have 
also  a  charmingly  characteristic  word,  derived 
from  political  life.  They  say  that  the  isolated 
individual  is  "  unbekleidet  "  or  unclothed  ! 

It  is  not,  however,  true  to  assert,  as  has  been 
done,  that  one  German  will  take  another  upon 
credit :  it  is  true  that  he  is  rather  inclined 
to  take  a  title  of  any  kind  as  a  guarantee  of 
respectability,  but  this  is  really  a  compliment 
to  German  officialdom,  which  does  stand  on 


21fl         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

the  whole  for  incorruptibility  and  honesty. 
On  the  other  hand  Germans  do  seek  and  find 
companionship,  and  they  do  not  demand  that 
the  companion  or  friend  of  an  excursion  shall 
"  grapple  them  to  his  soul  with  hoops  of  steel." 
Casual  acquaintance  is  a  recognized  institu- 
tion, involving  no  necessary  subsequent  obliga- 
tions on  either  side.  But  it  is  not  true  that 
Germans,  speaking  generally,  obtrude  them- 
selves. They  are  accustomed  to  sociability, 
and  are  apt  to  express  surprise  when  they  do 
not  find  it,  but  they  do  not  force  themselves 
upon  those  who  for  one  reason  or  another 
prefer  to  "  keep  themselves  to  themselves." 
It  is,  for  example,  the  custom  that  newcomers 
to  a  town  or  village  shall  call  first  upon  older 
residents,  not  vice  versa,  and  it  would  appear 
that  this  custom  depends  upon  the  assump- 
tion that  the  visitors  should  first  express  a 
wish  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  residents, 
without  which  an  attempt  at  rapprochement 
might  be  regarded  as  a  social  solecism. 

The  position  of  women  in  Germany  is  a 
question  often  discussed  and  usually,  by 
foreigners  at  least,  somewhat  contemptuously. 
There  is,  perhaps,  a  pronounced  survival  of  the 
"  goods  and  chattels  "  treatment  of  German 
womenfolk,  which  strikes  visitors  as  sometimes 
silly  and  sometimes  merely  barbarian.  An 
American  writer  (Mr.  Price  Collier)  says : 
"  One  observes  everywhere  and  among  practi- 


CASTES    AND    CLASSES          217 

cally  all  classes  an  attitude  of  condescension 
toward  women  among  the  polite  and  polished, 
an  attitude  of  carelessness  bordering  on 
contempt  among  the  rude."  But  he  also 
observes  that  "  these  gross  manners  "  are  at 
least  partially  explained  by  the  fact  that  the 
German  people  are  only  just  emerging  from 
poverty,  not  only  the  poverty  of  possessions, 
but  the  poverty  of  experience.  "  They  are  as 
awkward  in  this  new  world  of  theirs  of  greater 
wealth  and  opportunity,  as  unyoked  oxen  that 
have  strayed  into  city  streets."  At  the  bottom 
of  this  criticism  therefore  remains  the  fact 
which  we  have  already  seen  in  so  many 
spheres,  namely  that  socially,  except  in 
certain  broad  outlines,  Germany  has  not  yet 
developed  her  new  imperial  machinery  of 
society  :  uniformity  of  education  is  producing 
a  certain  uniformity  of  character  and  of  action, 
but  it  is  neither  true  to  say  that  the  German 
is  essentially  discourteous  in  his  feelings 
towards  women  because  he  is  apt  to  be  dis- 
courteous (judged  by  other  standards)  in  his 
attitude  towards  them  in  trams  and  trains  and 
public  resorts  ;  nor  is  it  prudent  to  draw  the 
conclusion  that  except  in  the  event  of  a  huge 
social  upheaval  woman  will  never  take  the 
prominent  place  in  the  life  of  the  nation 
which  she  has  made  for  herself  elsewhere. 

That  the  German  male  does  on  the  whole  re- 
gard his  women  folk  as  having  missed  their  one 


218         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

true  function  if  they  are  not  "  broad-bosomed 
mothers  of  stout  sons,"  it  would  be  absurd 
to  deny,  and  it  is  no  less  true  that  the  beauty 
of  motherhood  is  apt  to  be  almost  officially 
subordinated  to  the  mechanical  "  duty " 
of  women  to  provide  males  for  the  service  of 
the  State,  its  defence  or  its  economic  pros- 
perity. Hence  it  is  also  true  that  the  whole 
State  system  of  protection  for  mothers  by 
factory  legislation,  regulation  of  midwifery 
and  so  forth  is  much  less  dictated  by  humane 
sentiment  than  by  economic  considerations, 
and  it  is  not  impossible  that  this  attitude 
may  partly  account  for  the  appalling  statistics 
of  German  illegitimacy.  Germany  has  in- 
herited a  certain  excessive  materialism  in  this 
matter  from  the  days  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  it  appears  unlikely  that  she  will  soon 
shake  off  an  attitude  to  this  subject  which,  it 
must  be  supposed,  is  hardly  really  in  the 
interests,  qualitatively,  of  the  nation.  None 
the  less  the  mere  surplus  of  women  over  men 
in  Germany  (at  present  about  800,000), 
although  it  appears  to  be  decreasing,  must 
act  as  a  compulsory  agent  in  the  expansion  of 
women's  sphere  of  activity  in  the  Empire. 

Women's  education  has  not  yet  received  the 
same  degree  of  Government  attention  as  that 
of  men.  Doubtless  this  has  been  mainly  due 
to  the  conception  prevailing  from  highest 
to  lowest  that  in  a  well-ordered  State  there 


CASTES   AND    CLASSES          219 

ought  not  to  be  any  necessity  for  the  same 
development  of  special  education  of  women  as 
of  men.  But  as  already  stated  the  majority 
of  German  universities  are  now  open  to 
women  students,  and  the  schools  graded 
parallel  to  the  gymnasial  and  modern  schools 
for  boys  are  increasing  in  number,  though 
the  effort  is  still  mainly  left  to  private  or  at 
most  municipal  enterprise.  In  industrial  life 
there  are  regular  vereins,  including  some 
well-known  people,  who  desire  to  restrict 
women's  professional  wage-earning  activities 
to  "  typically  feminine  employments,"  and 
to  diminish  the  "  female  competition  by  con- 
fining the  competitors  to  unmarried  women." 
In  reply  to  a  ridiculous  pamphlet  to  this 
effect  it  was  pointed  out  that  there  are 
approximately  10,000,000  women  in  Germany 
earning  wages  "  haupt-beruflich,"  that  is, 
as  their  life's  work,  and  not  merely  as  a  more 
or  less  unnecessary  additional  occupation. 
Of  these  one-third,  or  over  3,000,000,  are 
married  women. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  add  to  these  convincing 
figures  in  order  to  show  that  the  admittedly 
widespread  German  conception  of  woman's 
place  in  the  German  State  is  confounded  by 
the  mere  facts.  Except  in  charitable  concerns, 
and  to  some  extent  in  municipal  inspectorates 
and  in  the  care  of  children  thrown  upon  the 
State  for  protection,  women  do  not  take  a 


220          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

pronounced  public  position  in  Germany,  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  even  the  modest 
amount  of  legal  emancipation  which  German 
women  possess  dates  only  from  the  beginning 
of  the  century.  Up  to  1900  in  most  of  the 
German  States  women  had  no  legal  right 
over  their  own  children  :  they  could  in  many 
cases  neither  act  as  witnesses  to  contracts  of 
any  kind  nor  commence  proceedings  in  a  law- 
court  without  special  permission.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  review  the  nineteenth  century 
disabilities,  especially  of  married  women,  in 
detail,  and  it  may  be  enough  to  add  that  in 
the  intervening  decade  they  have  assumed  a 
much  more  prominent  position,  not  only 
actually,  but  also  in  the  eyes  of  the  public. 
Women  are  now  practising  as  doctors,  jurists, 
professors,  architects,  and  engineers  in  Ger- 
many, and  there  is  a  gradual  though  slow 
growth  in  the  political  organisation  of  women, 
not  only  by  Liberal  and  Socialist  groups,  but 
also  by  Conservatives.  In  fine  it  may  be 
said  that  Germans  are  being  obliged,  even  if  it 
be  a  little  against  their  will  and  convictions, 
to  recognize  the  competition  and  the  competi- 
tive ability  of  women  in  all  classes  of  life. 
There  is  therefore  no  very  long  step  to  the 
disappearance  of  the  old  German  Hausfrau 
ideal,  and  also  to  the  end  of  the  system  under 
which  the  German  woman  was  "  a  doll  before 
marriage,  and  a  drudge  afterwards." 


CASTES    AND    CLASSES          221 

In  the  pre-imperial  days  German  ladies  were 
accustomed  to  doing  the  greater  part  of  their 
own  housework  and  practically  all  their  own 
cooking.  With  the  increase  of  wealth  and  the 
consequent  increase  of  a  more  elaborate  kind 
of  social  entertainment  the  old  personal 
attention  to  the  affairs  of  the  household  has 
become  less  and  less  possible  in  many  cases,  but 
at  the  same  time  there  did  not  and  does  not  exist 
in  Germany  what  an  Englishman  has  called 
**  a  dynasty  of  domestic  servants,"  that  is  a 
regular  caste  of  often  highly-trained  servants 
of  the  better  class.  The  domestic  drudge 
exists  equally  in  both  countries,  whether  she 
be  called  a  cook-general  as  in  England,  or  as 
in  Germany  simply,  and  even  less  preten- 
tiously a  "  Madchen  fur  alles."  In  Germany 
she  usually  does  a  little  simple  cooking,  and 
she  possesses  an  amazing  capacity  for  very 
hard  and  very  ill-paid  labour.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  the  "  Madchen  fur  alles  "  also 
tends  to  disappear  and  to  give  way  to  a  simple 
drudge  lacking  the  "  Madchen's "  fidelity, 
cleanliness,  and  willingness.  The  German 
lady  no  longer  finds  time  to  do  the  work  herself 
and  there  is  no  one  upon  whom  she  can  fall 
back  to  do  it  for  her,  for  there  has  not  yet 
been  produced  a  new  class  of  domestic  servant 
which  can  and  does  take  a  pride  in  the  work. 

The  attractions  of  the  factory  and  still 
more  of  the  big  warehouse  or  stores  with 


222         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

"  freedom  "  after  7  p.m.,  even  with  a  miserable 
shake-down  called  a  "  Schlafstelle  "  into  the 
bargain,  are  as  great,  apparently,  in  Germany 
as  elsewhere,  and  the  efforts  of  various 
municipalities  to  correct  the  tendency  educa- 
tionally are  not  sufficient  to  stem  the  general 
tide.  It  is  perhaps  because  there  is  no 
tradition  of  domestic  service  in  Germany 
that  in  all  except  the  newest  houses  or  flats 
arrangements  for  servants'  rooms  are  so 
primitive  as  to  be  a  national  scandal.  The 
police  do  now  forbid  putting  maidservants 
in  narrow  rooms,  without  any  window  except 
one  opening  into  another  room,  usually  the 
kitchen,  and  so  low  that  the  occupier  of  the 
room  cannot  stand  upright,  but  they  do  not 
forbid  house-owners  to  continue  to  advertise 
six-room  flats  "  with  servants'  room  "  where 
the  latter  is  the  old  swindle  fresh  painted  and 
with  a  hole  cut  in  the  outer  wall. 

One  result  of  the  departure  of  the  old  regime 
and  of  the  increase  of  prosperity  and  social 
duties  without  a  corresponding  increase  in 
the  number  of  people  willing  to  undertake  for 
a  fair  wage  the  duties  that  the  housewife 
used  to  perform  for  herself,  has  undoubtedly 
been  the  extraordinary  development  of  the 
restaurant  habit.  German  families  in  towns 
habitually  resort  to  restaurants  for  the  family 
meal  on  Sunday  and  holidays,  and  in  the  big 
cities  it  is  often  impossible  for  the  casual 


CASTES    AND    CLASSES          223 

stranger  to  find  a  seat  until  late  in  the  after- 
noon. There  would  naturally  be  a  certain 
decay  of  what  Englishmen  understand  by 
home  life  arising  from  this  development,  and 
this  decay  is  furthered,  of  course,  by  the  lack 
of  single-family  houses.  Nor  does  it  seem  to 
be  true  that  the  Germans  themselves  are 
particularly  enthusiastic  about  this  develop- 
ment, for  their  pres,s  frequently  contains 
admiring  and  admirably  written  descriptions 
of  English  homes,  to  which  the  writers 
have  had  access. 

It  is  frequently  asserted  that  the  "  German 
is  very  easily  amused,"  whereby  no  aspersion 
on  his  risible  faculties  is  intended,  but  simply 
reference  to  the  fact  that  he  takes  his  recrea- 
tions and  his  pleasures  easily,  finds  them  easily, 
and  enjoys  them  in  general  not  too  critically. 
Criticism  he  is  apt  to  leave  to  professional 
critics,  perhaps  too  much  so,  especially  in 
matters  of  art.  At  any  of  the  German  seaside 
resorts  on  the  Baltic  the  visitor  may  see  the 
whole  strand  covered  with  little  bamboo 
masts  and  strings  of  coloured  flags  erected  upon 
or  within  great  sand-redoubts,  tricked  out 
with  seaweed,  pebbles,  and  other  flotsam  of 
the  shore,  such  as  children  are  wont  to  collect 
in  England.  These  little  redoubts,  which  are 
treated  as  inviolable  territory  by  neighbour- 
ing squatters,  have  been  constructed  chiefly 
by  the  hands  of  the  elderly  Germans  who  have 


224          GERMANY    OF   TO-DAY 

brought  their  children  to  the  seashore.  They 
are  by  no  means  ashamed  of  being  seen  digging 
with  a  child's  spade,  and  in  fact  are  rather 
proud  of  their  competitive  exertions. 

But  the  most  striking  feature  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Germans  at  play  is  the  place  they 
have  taken  as  a  travelling  people.  Not  many 
years  ago  Germans  could  still  be  considered 
stay-at-homes  ;  that  is  to  say,  when  they 
travelled  it  was  almost  always  within  the 
Empire,  and  usually  within  their  own  State 
or  its  neighbourhood.  Now  there  is  as  big  an 
annual  exodus  from  Germany  to  the  various 
*'  playgrounds  of  Europe  "  as  from  England, 
and  perhaps  now  the  Germans  head  the  list  of 
summer  travellers.  It  is  true  that  holiday 
travellers  from  England  do  not  notice  the 
extent  of  the  German  invasion  of  Italy, 
Switzerland,  Norway,  and  so  forth,  because 
the  German  travelling  season  begins  a  month 
earlier  than  the  English,  since  it  corresponds  to 
the  German  school  holidays,  which  begin  in  the 
first  week  of  July  and  end  about  the  tenth  of 
August ;  but  many  well-known  holiday  re- 
sorts, especially  in  Northern  Italy,  which  were 
once  completely  Anglicized,  are  now  equally 
completely  Germanized.  Moreover,  the  Ger- 
mans now  flood  the  Italian  and  French  Riviera 
as  the  English  used  to  do  ;  they  are  found  in 
Egypt,  Algiers,  Spain,  Greece,  and  all  the 
other  tourist  resorts  as  frequently  or  more 


CASTES   AND   CLASSES          225 

frequently  than  the  travellers  of  any  other 
nation. 

That  this  is  a  development  caused  by 
increase  of  national  wealth  is  obvious,  but 
the  development  and  cheapness  of  the  special 
summer  seaside  trains  run  by  the  imperial 
railways  in  the  summer  has  also  produced  an 
exodus  from  Berlin,  which  is  actually  much 
more  noticeable  than  the  summer  exodus  from 
London.  One  result  is  certainly  a  widening 
of  the  mental  horizon  of  the  bulk  of  the 
middle-class  population,  and  its  ultimate 
effect  is  perhaps  in  the  direction  of  tolerance. 
The  Germans  of  pre-imperial  days  knew  also' 
the  "  Wanderlust,"  a  word  which  happily 
translates  itself,  but  the  character  of  their 
wanderings  is  shown,  not  as  in  England  by 
remnants  of  old  travelling  coaches  and 
memories  of  the  Grand  Tour,  but  by  stout- 
knobbed  sticks,  sometimes  provided  with  an 
old-fashioned  measure,  and  sometimes  with  a 
kind  of  pocket  for  a  knife,  which  may  be 
discovered  by  the  fortunate  in  second-hand 
shops. 

The  remarkable  strides  made  by  Germans  j 
in  the  way  of  sport  need  no  emphasis.     On  \ 
the  road  and  the  river,  on  the  cinder-track 
and  the  field  they  are  rapidly  becoming,  or  are 
even  now  competitors  of  the  nations  that  once 
had  the  domain  of  sport  almost  to  themselves. 
Football,  to  take  one  example,  is  by  now 


226          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

almost  a  national  sport  of  Germany  since  the 
Crown  Prince  and  others  in  authority  en- 
couraged the  formation  of  regimental  football 
teams.  On  Easter  Monday,  which  is  the  great 
day  for  big  football  matches  in  Germany, 
there  is  scarcely  an  open  ground  in  the 
periphery  of  Berlin  which  has  not  its  game 
in  progress,  although  a  few  years  ago  it 
would  have  been  hard  to  find  more  than  one 
or  two  games.  Cricket  has  never  flourished, 
chiefly  perhaps  because  it  is  difficult  to 
maintain  good  grass  pitches.  Golf  is  rapidly 
growing  in  popularity  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  big  towns,  but  it  is  still  not  the  game 
of  the  middle-class  German.  There  are  work- 
men's rowing  clubs,  skating  clubs,  athletic 
clubs,  football  clubs,  and  so  forth,  and  they  are 
^/-steadily  increasing,  so  that  by  degrees  the  old 
i  type  of  German  who  was  said  "  to  take  all  the 
exercise  he  would  ever  get  during  his  military 
service,"  and  thereafter  to  walk  a  mile  or 
two  at  most,  and  then  subside  into  a  chair 
ujwith  a  beermug  is  vanishing.  That  the 
sporting  movement  receives  the  warm  support 
of  the  authorities  is  natural,  if  only  because  it 
keeps  the  reservist  in  some  measure  of  training. 
There  are,  of  course,  less  pleasant  aspects 
of  the  increase  of  general  prosperity.  Berlin, 
Hanover,  and  other  cities  have  to  complain 
of  a  steady  increase  of  gambling,  which  appears 
to  be  especially  a  military  vice,  if  one  may 


CASTES   AND   CLASSES          227 

judge  from  the  frequency  with  which  officers 
are  found  mixed  up  in  gambling  scandals. 
Nor  are  the  crowds  which  throng  the  German 
race-courses  any  less  "  mixed  "  in  character 
than  those  to  be  found  in  other  countries 
where  the  popularity  of  the  race-course 
is,  on  the  whole,  of  older  date.  It  can 
hardly  be  necessary  to  insist  upon  such 
features,  because  they  appear  inevitably 
to  accompany  national  prosperity,  and  it 
could  not  be  expected  that  Germany  should 
remain  exempt.  The  virtue  of  frugality 
does,  however,  remain  to  a  large  extent  with 
the  Germans.  German  housewives  are,  on  the 
whole,  as  thrifty  as  ever,  though  the  whole 
standard  of  living  in  all  classes  has  risen 
greatly  in  the  last  thirty  years. 

There  is  still  no  more  remarkable  sight 
than  a  great  German  open-air  beer  garden 
on  a  summer  evening.  Its  neatly  decked 
tables  are  thronged  with  neatly  dressed  men 
and  women  of  the  working  class,  there  is 
usually  an  excellent  band,  and  these  throngs 
of  Germans  are  content  to  sit  quietly  listening; 
and  drinking  slowly  a  big  pot  of  light  beer! 
to  the  accompaniment  of  a  very  mild  cigar. 
Or  if  a  still  more  striking  example  of  German 
orderliness  and  cleanliness  be  required,  it 
might  be  found  in  one  of  the  great  annual 
Socialist  meetings  under  cover.  Some  huge 
covered  restaurant  is  usually  chosen,  and 


228         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

there  a  thousand  or  two  men  and  women  will 
assemble  in  their  Sunday  clothes,  will  sit  at 
the  little  tables  and  sip  their  beer  whilst  the 
speeches  are  thundered  at  them  from  the 
platform.  These  characteristics  appear  not 
to  be  greatly  affected  by  the  increase  of 
prosperity,  and  they  may  perhaps  therefore 
be  taken  as  virtues  which  are  not  very  likely 
to  be  "  civilized  "  out  of  the  country. 

It  would  seem,  however,  that  if  the  solidity 
remains,  the  excess  of  that  virtue,  stolidity, 
is  gradually  diminishing.  Possibly  the  growth 
of  city  life  and  the  change  of  Germany  from 
an  agricultural  to  a  mainly  industrial  people 
may  account  in  part  for  the  fact  that  the 
Germans  in  general  appear  to  be  growing 
more  excitable  (perhaps  more  "  neurasthenic  " 
would  be  a  more  acceptable  term).  It  is 
certain  that  the  German  public  no  longer 
maintains  that  philosophic  tranquillity  which 
was  so  convenient  to  the  State  machinery. 
Events  both  at  home  and  abroad  produce 
demonstrations  of  public  opinion  not  always 
in  accord  with  their  intrinsic  importance, 
and  there  have  been  noticeable  instances 
of  an  inclination  on  the  part  of  the  public 
to  "  take  the  bit  between  its  teeth."  What  is 
true  of  the  nation  generally  is  almost  equally 
true  of  individuals,  though  in  the  one  case  as 
in  the  other  the  nervous  strain  of  modern 
competitive  life  may  be  chiefly  to  blame. 


GERMANY   OF    TO-DAY         229 

In  Germany  not  less  than  in  other  countries, 
the  changes  are  necessarily  most  apparent 
in  the  towns.  Village  life,  especially  in 
districts  lying  off  the  main  lines  of  railway, 
still  retains  its  picturesque  characteristics 
and  many  of  its  ancient  customs.  From  the 
foregoing  observations  on  German  agriculture 
it  will  readily  be  gathered  that  Northern 
Germany  in  particular  retains  many  of  the 
aspects  of  decaying  feudalism,  whilst  in 
southern  Germany,  particularly  in  Baden, 
there  will  be  found  a  communal  independence 
of  spirit  reminding  one  almost  of  Swiss 
conditions.  A  great  kindliness  of  character, 
especially  towards  foreigners,  is  characteristic, 
however,  of  north  and  south  alike.  It  is  a 
pity  that  the  stream  of  foreign  visitors 
is  steadily  directed  into  a  few  main  channels, 
and  that  the  beautiful  Mecklenburg  country, 
the  fascinating  Baltic  coast  villages,  and  the 
forest-girt  lakes  of  Brandenburg,  for  example, 
are  for  the  most  part  wholly  neglected.  The 
conception  of  discourtesy,  jealousy,  and  bar- 
barism, which  appears  to  prevail  regarding 
Prussia  in  general  would  be  modified  if  there 
were  a  wider  knowledge  of  these  Prussian 
villages,  which  so  far  have  escaped  the  regret- 
table barbarization  of  that  most  un-German 
town,  Berlin. 


CHAPTER   X 

INTELLECTUAL   LIFE 

IT  is  perhaps  questionable  whether  any  one 
not  a  native  of  a  country  has  adequate 
qualifications  to  review,  much  less  to  criticize, 
that  country's  intellectual  life.  Germany's 
intellectual  attainments  are  the  common 
property  of  the  world  (he  may  run  that  reads), 
but  the  process  of  German  intellectual  develop- 
ment at  the  present  day  is  another  matter. 
It  might  be  hard,  for  instance,  to  say  what 
share  religion,  faith  beyond  the  forms  of 
faith,  plays  in  the  life  of  the  nation.  A 
foreigner  attempting  to  form  some  judgment 
thereof  might  be  tempted  by  the  constant 
and  increasing  complaints  of  desertions  from 
the  Lutheran  Church  to  express  doubt  whether 
Lutheranism  has  any  longer  a  deep  hold  on 
the  religious  feelings  of  northern  Germany. 
Equally  constant  complaints  regarding  the 
obscurantism  of  the  South  might  tempt  him 
into  problematic  discussions  of  the  effects 
of  Roman  Catholicism.  He  would  find  cer- 
tain pronounced  incidents  of  recent  years, 
230 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  281 

the  expulsion  from  the  Lutheran  ministry 
of  latitudinarian  pastors,  the  ban  of  the 
synods  placed  upon  men  like  Pfarrer  Jatho, 
who  died  whilst  this  chapter  was  being 
written,  and  the  support  of  these  intellectual 
nonconformists  by  a  large  portion  of  the  best 
edited  press,  and  he  might  be  tempted  perhaps 
to  over-estimate  the  importance  of  such  inci- 
dents. 

Broadly  speaking,  a  German  student  of 
the  religious  life  of  his  own  time  would 
perhaps  admit  that  in  Germany  as  elsewhere, 
in  the  nation  as  in  the  individual,  deep-seated 
religious  feeling  is  apt  tcfmid  open  expression 
rather  in  moments  of  stress  than  in  moments 
of  prosperity,  and  that  one  prominent  and 
undeniable  feature  of  the  religious  life  of 
Germany  is  ii\differentism.  He  would  perhaps 
question  whether  this  or  indeed  any  feature 
is  peculiarly  German,  and  not  rather  a  general 
feature  of  intellectual  development  throughout 
Europe.  He  would  note  that  the  problem 
of  religious  education  is  as  little  solved 
in  Germany  as  elsewhere,  and  that  the 
struggle  of  the  creeds  for  the  ...control  of 
education  and  the  demands  of  the  Free- 
thinkers that  there  should  be  no  religious 
education  of  any  kind  in  the  schools  main- 
tained at  the  public  expense,  are  as  keen  as 
elsewhere.  The  foreigner,  again,  moving 
through  town  and  country,  would  find  many 


282         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

country  churches  in  a  state  of  neglect  or  at 
least  of  apparent  neglect ;  he  would  perhaps 
not  be  greatly  impressed  by  the  numbers 
or  the  reverence  of  northern  congregations 
and  still  less  impressed  by  the  respect  paid 
to  the  ministry.  And  so  noting,  he  might 
arrive  at  the  false  conclusion  that  religion  plays 
very  little  part  in  the  life  of  the  community. 

Outwardly,  since  it  is  only  the  outward 
aspects  we  have  any  right  to  comment  upon, 
there  are  many  points  worthy  of  note.  Despite 
the  "  secularization  of  Sunday,"  great  care 
is  taken  that  the  charge  of  the  churches  shall 
not  be  made  the  burden  of  a  few.  A  church- 
tax  is  raised  based  upon  the  State  income-tax, 
and  it  must  be  paid  by  all  who  do  not  declare 
themselves  "  diffident,"  in  plain  English, 
atheists  or  unbelievers.  Each  taxpayer's 
mite  is  transferred  by  the  synodal  collectors 
to  the  religious  community  to  which  he 
belongs,  that  is  to  the  local  authority  for  that 
community,  but  members  of  the  non-recog- 
nized religious  communities  are  relieved  of 
payment  on  showing  that  they  subscribe 
regularly  to  the  funds  of  some  such  com- 
munity. Certain  excrescences,  if  one  may 
employ  the  word,  such  as  Mormonism,  are, 
of  course,  not  recognised  at  all,  but  seat- 
holders  of  English  churches,  for  example, 
are  exempt  from  the  tax.  Socially  the 
Lutheran  ministry  ranks  probably  next  to 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  233 

the  Juristic  profession ;  in  practically  all 
States  the  Pfarrer  has  a  guaranteed  minimum 
income  of  £90  per  annum,  rising  at  the  end 
of  twenty  years'  service  to  some  three  times 
that  amount.  Superintendents-General  and 
Ecclesiastical  Councillors  receive  from  £500 
to  £700  per  annum.  Pastors  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  must  be  university  graduates,  and 
must  also  have  spent  some  months  in  study 
of  pedagogy  of  the  elementary  sort,  the 
reason  being  that  the  local  Pfarrer,  at  any 
rate  in  Prussia,  is  as  a  rule  deputed  by  Govern- 
ment to  exercise  the  overseership  of  the  local 
elementary  school. 

Lutheran  pastors  almost  unanimously  re- 
fused the  exemption  from  military  service 
which  was  offered  them  in  1891,  but  instead 
of  being  called  upon  to  serve  with  the  reserve 
they  may  be  summoned  as  field-chaplains. 
The  Roman  Catholic  clergy,  though  nominally 
subject  to  military  service,  are  actually 
exempt.  In  general,  the  north  and  east  of 
Germany  are  Lutheran  districts,  the  south 
and  west  Catholic. 

If  it  is  difficult  to  judge  of  the  religious 
side  of  German  intellectual  development, 
it  is  perhaps  no  less  difficult  to  form  an 
estimate  of  the  general  tendency  of  German 
secular  thought  and  therefore  also  of  German 
secular  literature.  The  "  nation  of  Thinkers 
and  Poets  "  has  become  a  great  industrial 


y/ 


234          GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

nation,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  industrial 
and  commercial  competition  is  as  fruitful 
of  literary  results  as  was  the  long  period  of 
physical  struggle  against  foreign  enemies. 
It  might  be  fair  to  question  whether  modern 
German  literature,  that  is,  belles  lettres,  can 
show  at  present  any  pronounced  direction. 
Nietzsche,  Zola,  and  Tolstoi  have  their 
followers,  if  not  actually  their  schools. ,  Ibsen, 
Maeterlinck,  and  Pierre  Loti,  French,  Italian, 
and  Russian  writers,  have  also  their  pro- 
nounced disciples.  From  which  it  would 
appear  that  German  intellectual  taste  is  as 
catholic  as  any  other.  It  has  already  been 
pointed  out  that  the  growth  of  industrialism 
has  enabled  German  thinkers  to  Jiarness 
themselves  to  the  car  of  progress,  and  indeed 
the  part  taken  by  German  professors  in  the 
public  life  of  the  nation,  particularly  in  its 
political  life,  has  given  rise  to  the  sarcastic 
German  commentary,  "  Germany  will  one 
day  be  destroyed  by  her  professors." 

Realism  is  perhaps  the  prevailing  feature 
at  the  present  of  German  narrative-literature, 
but  German  novels,  despite  their  realism,  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  stand  on  a  very  high  level 
of  merit.  There  are,  of  course,  brilliant 
exceptions,  and  amongst  the  exceptions  the 
apostles  of  confidence  and  quietness  hold  an 
honoured  place.  Amongst  brilliantly  imagina- 
tive writers  Michael  Conrad  might  perhaps 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  235 

be  called  the  H.  G.  Wells  of  southern  Germany, 
and  Detlev  von  Liliencron,  who  died  recently, 
was  termed  Germany's  Kipling,  owing  to  the 
military  character  of  his  romances.  Gerhart 
Hauptmann  is,  of  course,  better  known  as 
playwright  than  as  novelist,  and  his  later 
novels,  "  The  Fool  in  Christ,"  and  "  Atlantis," 
have  not  added  greatly  to  his  reputation. 

Like  other  countries  Germany  has  become 
impressed  with  the  dangerous  character  of 
much  of  the  cheap  literature,  and  the  "  Asso- 
ciation for  fighting  Filth  in  Word  and  Pic- 
ture," though  it  frequently  overshoots  the 
mark,  does  good  work  in  its  efforts  to  remove 
obnoxiously  suggestive  literature  from  the 
book-market.  Unfortunately  sex  problems 
are  still  the  happy  hunting  ground  (here  as 
elsewhere)  for  many  writers  who  are  not  or 
do  not  appear  properly  equipped  for  the 
very  delicate  task  they  have  undertaken. 
Gustav  Frenssen,  the  writer  of  ^lorn^-Unl, 
who  is  a  Lutheran  pastor,  is  deservedly  one 
of  the  most  popular  of  modern  German 
novelists,  but  his  reputation  is  already  inter- 
national. There  is  as  great  a  flood  of  some- 
times rather  rubbishy  military  and  naval 
novelists  of  "  Wars  of  19 — ,"  "  Wars  in  the 
clouds,  the  seas,  and  the  stars,"  as  in  any  other 
European  country.  They  are  scarcely  litera- 
ture, though  at  times  they  appear  to  enjoy  a 
large  sale. 


236         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

Possibly  the  amazing  knowledge  possessed 
by  very  many  Germans  of  the-jdassic.al,  litera- 
ture of  other  countries  should  rather  find  due 
notice  under  the  head  of  education,  but  it 
should  be  noted  that  the  liking  for  foreign 
classics  and  the  ability  to  read  them  in  the 
original  is  a  striking  feature  of  German  culture 
generally,  and  not  merely  of  German  study. 
Cheap  editions  of  classics  and  of  foreign 
classics  in  good  translations  were  a  feature  of 
the  German  book  market  long  before  cheap 
editions  of  good  books  were  a  pronounced 
feature  of  the  English  market.  Probably  the 
most  remarkable  of  these  series  is  the  Reclam 
edition,  with  its  several  thousand  volumes  of 
the  best  literature  of  all  countries  at  prices 
from  twopence  upwards  to  about  a  shilling. 
Germany  at  present  lacks  an  institution  quite 
taking  the  place  of  the  library  of  the  British 
Museum,  though  the  Royal  Library  of  Berlin 
ancTthe  big  libraries  of  other  towns  hold  high 
rank  amongst  the  libraries  of  the  world. 
The  facilities  for  consulting  the  former  are, 
however,  by  no  means  to  be  compared  to 
those  offered  in  London.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
officialdom  imposes  absurd  restrictions,  which 
render  study  at  the  Berlin  Library  a  trial  of 
patience  to  the  most  equable  temperament. 
It  is  now  proposed  to  commence  an  Imperial 
Library  at  Leipzig,  which  is  the  "  Booksellers' 
town  "  par  excellence. 


INTELLECTUAL    LIFE  237 

From  literature  it  is  natural  that  one  should 
turn  to  the  drama,  and  here  one  reaches 
ground  that  has  already  been  touched  in 
foregoing  chapters.  We  have  already  seen 
that  opera  and  the  drama,  as  a  part  of  the 
intellectual  development  of  the  nation,  are 
cared  for  in  part  by  the  municipalities.  The 
encouragement  of  the  drama  and  opera  by 
the  German  sovereigns  is  another  not  less 
important, .leature  of  modern  German  "intel- 
lectual life.  The  veteran  Duke  George  of 
Saxe-Meiningen  developed  in  the  court 
theatre  of  Meiningen  a  uniformly  realistic 
presentment  of  the  world's  greatest  dramatic 
masterpieces  which  has  become  internationally 
famous  under  the  title  of  the  "  Meiningen 
Tradition."  The  "  Meininger,"  as  theTtravel- 
ling  company  was  called,  may  properly  be 
regarded  as  the  forerunner  of  modern  German 
theatrical  tradition,  which  finds  its  best 
expression  perhaps  in  the  Berlin  Deutsches 
Theater,  for  which  Max  Reinhard,  the  well- 
known  international  regisseur,  is  responsible. 
Amongst  modern  German  playwrights  Suder- 
mann  and  Hauptmann  are  probably  the  best 
known  outside,  and  even  in  Germany  ;  Wede- 
kind,  the  author  of  the  brilliant  but  all  too 
realistic  Fruhlings  Erwachen,  has  become  a 
name  for  somewhat  eccentric  defence  of 
himself  against  the  censorship  ;  Hugo  von 
Hoffmannsthal  and  Ernst  von  Wildenbruch 


?38         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

appear  also  in  the  front  rank  with  Ludwig 
Thoma,  the  South-German  satirist ;  Ernst 
Hardt,  who  sprang  into  fame  with  his  prize 
drama  "  Tantris  der  Narr,"  and  Karl  Sehon- 
herr,  the  now  well-known  author  of  "  Glaube 
vmd  Heimat." 

These  are  only  a  few  amongst  the  names 
of  Germany's  foremost  dramatists.  If,  how- 
ever, we  turn  to  the  problem  of  German 
dramatic  development,  we  are  faced  by  the 
fact  that  either  the  German  public  is  turning 
from  the  drama,  even  from  light  comedy  of 
manners,  to  very  blatant  Germanized  versions 
of  not  always  irreproachable  French  farce,  or 
to  musical  comedy,  such  as  is  not  comedy  at  all 
and  only  masquerades  under  the  ridiculously 
misapplied  title  of  light  opera,  or  that  German 
theatrical  managers  are  hopelessly  incompe- 
tent. One  theatre  after  another  in  Berlin 
has  closed  its  doors  within  the  last  six  months, 
and  given  way  to  operetta  or  the  cinemato- 
graph :  others  struggle  on  with  an  increasing 
load  of  mortgage  and  debt.  Eight  Berlin 
theatres  closed  their  doors  in  the  year  1912- 
1913.  Manifestly  to  attempt  a  review  or  a 
criticism  of  the  German  drama  within  the 
narrow  limits  here  necessarily  prescribed 
would  be  an  impertinence.  There  are,  how- 
ever, one  or  two  outward  features  commonly 
enumerated  in  this  connection  whereto  refer- 
ence may  be  justified. 


INTELLECTUAL    LIFE  239 

First  it  is  pointed  out  that  German  life  has 
changed  almost  completely  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Empire,  but  the  tone  of  theatrical 
criticism  has  not.  Once  the  stage  undoubted- 
ly played  a  great  part  in  education,  wher 
textual  education  was  still  defective.  That 
part  of  the  German  people  which  attended  the 
theatres  at  the  beginning  and  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century  desired  or  submitted  to  be 
treated  as  students,  expenditure  except  in  a 
few  cases  was  not  extravagant,  and  the 
"  theatres  of  the  twelve  hundred,  or  the  two 
or  the  six  thousand  "  were  not  dreamed  of. 
In  a  word  the  drama,  like  opera,  was  supported 
largely  by  patronage,  not  by  the  appeal  it 
made  to  the  desire  of  the  mass  of  the  people  for 
recreation.  That  is  all  changed.  The  great 
majority  of  playgoers  have  no  longer  the  time, 
even  if  they  had  the  inclination,  to  take  their 
post-graduate  education  in  homoeopathic 
theatrical  doses.  The  German  business  man, 
be  he  clerk  or  manager  or  chief,  works  a  long 
day,  and  the  Berlin  shop  assistant's  day  is 
much  longer  than  that  of  his  or  her  English 
colleague.  City  life  nowadays  has  a  much 
greater  effect  on  the  nerves  of  the  town- 
dweller,  and  when  the  day's  work  is  done,  the 
city  dweller  does  not  desire  more  education 
but  relief,  change,  entertainment.  He  does 
not  want  to  think  out  problems,  and  he  does 
usually  want  to  laugh.  The  German  stage 


240         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

has,  it  is  claimed,  failed  to  take  account  of 
the  fact  that  the  proper  function  of  the  stage 
to-day  is  to  entertain  or  to  amuse  rather  than 
to  instruct. 

It  is  further  urged  that  German  dramatic 
criticism  is  largely  to  blame  for  this  state  of 
things.  The  critics,  "  a  pack  of  lean  and 
hungry  wolves  ever  ready  to  sharpen  their 
teeth  on  a  playwright's  bones  and  their  wits 
on  a  manager's  failures,"  exercise  through 
the  medium  of  the  press  a  great  influence  on 
the  fortunes  of  any  play,  and  their  criticisms 
are  determined  not  by  what  they  conceive  to 
be  the  demand  of  the  public  for  light  and 
wholesome  entertainment,  but  by  a  certain 
dramatic  purism  which  no  longer  bears  any 
relation  to  the  public  taste.  This  is,  of  course, 
as  much  as  to  say  that  the  critic's  only  proper 
function  is  to  tell  the  public  what  a  play  is 
about,  whether  the  audience  is  likely  to  laugh 
or  to  cry,  whether  the  staging  is  adequate  and 
the  actors  impressive ;  it  is  to  deny  to  criti- 
cism any  educative  raison  d'etre.  Possibly 
the  critics  err  on  the  one  side  as  much  as 
the  critics'  critics  err  on  the  other.  In  fine, 
however,  it  would  appear  that  the  German 
public  wants  rather  more  amusement  or 
entertainment  than  it  is  apt  to  get  from  the 
German  stage. 

Secondly,  it  is  complained  that  the  whole 
tendency  of  German  dramatic  development  of 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  241 

the  last  twenty-five  years  has  been  too 
"  literary  "  and  too  little  theatrical.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  last  century  there  was  developed 
in  Germany  a  movement  intended  to  release 
the  theatre  or  the  dramatist  from  the  routine 
which  had  gradually  standardized  and  re- 
stricted dramatic  art;  the  drama  was  once 
more  to  be  permitted  to  reflect  the  times  in 
which  it  was  written ;  it  was  "  to  make 
the  soul  the  protagonist  in  every  tragedy." 
Psychological  nuances,  the  expression  of  a 
general  feeling,  what  Germans  call  untranslate- 
ably  "  Stimmung,"  problems  of  ethics  and 
morals,  not  only  of  action  and  passion,  were 
to  be  the  proper  stuff  for  the  dramatist.  The 
comedy  of  manners,  such  as  they  are,  was  to  be 
restored.  Gerhart  Hauptmann  in  "  Hannele  " 
and  "  Die  Weber,"  and  the  Junker  characteri- 
zation of  Biberpelz  commenced  a  dramatic 
treatment  of  the  social  conditions  of  the  age, 
Schonherr  reproduced  in  the  form  of  a 
historic  play  the  religious  differences  which 
still  exist,  and  Maxim  Gorki  and  the  Russian 
school  were  brought  over  as  representatives 
of  the  same  development.  But  whilst  making 
the  soul  the  protagonist  in  the  play  this 
modern  school,  it  is  claimed,  omitted  to  make 
their  soul-plays  playable.  In  other  words, 
in  seeking  to  emancipate  the  stage  from  old 
restrictions  they  emancipated  it  also  from  its 
one  essential  feature,  stage-craft.  Lest  the 
Q 


242         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

plays  should  be  too  theatrical  they  have  made 
them  not  theatrical,  that  is  not  dramatic  at 
all.  The  enormous  popularity  of  Beyerlein'-s 
"Zapfenstreich,"  Meyer-Forster's  "  Alt  Heidel- 
berg," and  a  few  others,  and  the  failure  of  the 
majority  of  the  rest  showed  or  are  taken  to 
have  shown  that  the  modern  school  had 
simply  deprived  the  drama  of  all  stage  prac- 
ticability altogether.  They  had  accounted 
action  the  one  undramatic  element,  and  were 
left  facing  a  public  tKSt  demanded  action  if  it 
were  to  frequent  the  theatres. 

Failing  a  general  drama  that  could  attract 
the  public  on  its  own  merits,  it  is  further 
claimed,  German  stage-craft  has  striven  to 
replace  it  by  stage-management.  "Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream"  is  played  at 
the  Deutsches  Theater  in  a  woodland 
that  is  "  almost  as  real  as  life  "  ;  Juliet's 
garden  is  a  plastic  copy  of  one  existing  in 
Florence,  and  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice  "  is  a 
succession  of  scenes  which  almost  deceive  the 
eye.  But  Puck,  instead  of  being  Shake- 
speare's imagined  sprite,  is  a  Berlin  hooligan, 
Juliet  apes  the  manners  of  a  Berlin  "  flapper," 
and  Shylock  is  the  ole  clo'  merchant  of  the 
Friedrichstrasse.  And  as  for  the  public  it 
goes  to  see  crowd-scapes  organized  in  circuses, 
and  is  interested  by  these  and  not  by  Hugo 
von  Hoffmannsthal's  versions  of  ancient  Greek 
classics. 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  243 

Here,  then,  are  the  principal  complaints 
raised  against  modern  German  drama  by  its 
principal  critics.  Their  cry  is  or  seems  to  be, 
"  Give  the  public  stage-plays  that  are  really 
dramatic,  really  playable,  and  really  interest- 
ing in  action,  and  they  will  go  again  to  the 
theatre  and  the  Kino-craze  will  prove  its  own 
antidote."  Mention  must  be  made  in  conclu- 
sion of  the  efforts  to  enable  the  less  wealthy 
town-dwellers  to  enjoy  good  plays  well  played 
at  low  cost.  The  "  Der^craticJ^orJ^P^ople's 
Stage  "  is  the  most  remarkable  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  working  classes  themselves  to 
provide  for  themselves  good  and  well  acted 
dramatic  fare.  The  performances  are  ar- 
ranged by  the  society  in  theatres  hired  usually 
on  Sunday  afternoons :  the  seats  are  dis- 
tributed to  members  by  lot,  and  the  drudgery 
connected  with  the  performances  is  largely 
performed  by  volunteer  members  themselves, 
though  good,  and  often  first-class  actors  are 
engaged  to  take  the  parts  so  that  there  shall 
be  no  symptom  of  sheer  amateurism.  The 
society  is  now  said  to  number  nearly  Ij^OOO 
members.  In  general  a  leading  feature  of 
German  representation  is  the  attention  paid 
to  minor  parts  and,  as  a  consequence,  the 
evenness  of  the  representations. 

There  are  two  special  features  of  the 
educational  work  of  the  German  stage  which 
appear  to  deserve  more  attention,  than  they 


244,         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

receive  abroad,  namely,  the  educational 
travelling  troupes  and  the  open-air  perform- 
ances. The  former  is  best  illustrated  by  the 
"  travelling  theatre  "  of  the  Mark  Branden- 
burg, callecTtIie""*t~Mark  Players,"  established 
and  maintained  for  the  purpose  of  presenting 
classical  pieces  and  other  plays  of  a  good  class 
in  the  villages  of  the  Mark  Brandenburg  and 
adjoining  districts.  Very  little  is  heard  of 
the  work  of  these  organizations,  but  there 
appears  to  be  little  doubt  of  their  value. 
They  are  far  removed  from  the  fifth-rate 
travelling  companies  or  variety  troupes,  which 
usually  occupy  the  "  barns  "  of  little  local 
towns. 

The  second  feature,  wherein  one  may  in- 
clude for  convenience  the  local  pageant-plays 
and  the  periodical  productions  of  passion-plays 
and  other  derivatives  or  imitations  of  The 
mediaeval  mystery-play,  receives  more  atten- 
tion in  Germany  and  abroad  but,  from  foreign 
visitors  at  least,  by  no  means  as  much  atten- 
tion as  it  deserves.  Both  in  the  Harz  moun- 
tains and  elsewhere  there  are  numerous  open- 
air  theatres  (Frei-Licht  Theater)  where  suit- 
able plays,  usually  such  as  adapt  themselves 
readily  to  processional  and  pageant  character, 
are  presented,  though  adaptations  of  Greek 
play  and  series  of  scenes  from  German  classical 
plays  are  also  frequently  presented-  Hitherto 
the  largest  of  these  regular  open-air  theatres 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  245 

was  near  Leipzig,  but  at  present  the  largest 
European  open-air  theatre  is  situated  in  a 
valley  near  Prague  in  Bohemia.  Usually 
hill-country  is  selected  so  that  a  chorus  timed 
to  appear  at  the  end  of  the  act  is  seen  in  the 
distance  on  the  hill  side  at  the  beginning. 
In  the  Prague  theatre  it  is  stated  that  the 
chorus  can  be  seen  approaching  from  the 
distance  throughout  an  act  lasting  forty-five 
minutes.  The  effect  thus  produced  is  said  to 
be  quite  unique. 

South  Germany,  in  particular,  possesses 
a  number  of  annually  repeated  pageant  plays 
usually  recording  leading  incidents  of  local 
history.  Rothenburg,  on  the  Tauber,  is 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  these  pageant 
towns.  Its  annual  pageant-play,  produced 
on  Whitmonday,  records  the  history  of  the 
capture  of  the  town  by  Tilly  in  1631.  The 
town  still  retains  all  its  ancient  walls  and 
gateways  as  well  as  the  beautiful  streets 
of  timbered  and  gabled  houses,  and  the 
principal  events  of  the  day  of  the  capture 
of  the  town  are  reproduced  in  their  natural 
settings,  and  more  or  less  in  their  original 
order.  (The  play  has  been  produced  annually 
since  1881,  and  has  thus  already  a  respectable 
history.)  Dinkelsbiihl,  Landshut,  and  other 
towns  have  similar  annual  pageants,  some  of 
them  very  beautiful.  Probably  these  pageants, 
which  select  one  day's  events  out  of  the  history 


246         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

of  the  town,  leave  a  more  lasting  impression 
than  a  long  series  of  short  incidents.  The 
Rothenburg  festival,  in  particular,  attracts 
large  numbers  of  visitors  every  year,  much 
to  the  profit  of  the  beautiful  town. 

Like  the  drama,  German  music  in  the 
twentieth  century  tends  to  extend  its  bounds, 
and  to  overleap  the  restrictions  which  char- 
acterized it  at  the  end  of  the  last  century. 
Striking  illustrations  of  this  tendency  may  be 
seen  in  the  symphonies  of  Gustav  Mahler, 
and  the  operas  of  Richard  Strauss.  It  would 
appear,  however,  that  not  even  in  Germany 
has  the  attempt  to  give  musical  expression 
to  the  increased  mental  and  physical  stress 
of  modern  life  achieved  any  pronounced 
success.  German  operatic  music  is  for  the 
most  part  under  the  influence  of  Wagner, 
but  his  modern  disciples  have  hardly  produced 
works  for  which  long  life  can  reasonably  be 
predicted.  The  work  of  Engelbert  Humper- 
dinck  is  of  a  rather  lighter  texture,  whilst 
Albert  Lortzing  and  Eugene  Albert  may  be 
quoted  as  other  popular  exponents  of  a  light 
genre.  Of  the  great  operatic  centres  Dresden 
unquestionably  holds  the  front  place,  chiefly 
owing  to  its  readiness  to  accept  or,  at  any 
rate,  to  give  a  hearing  to  works  of  a  novel 
character,  such  as  are  apt  to  be  rejected  by 
the  more  conservative  traditions  of  Berlin. 

Germany  is  still  the  home  of  the  finest 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  247 

chamber-music  in  the  world,  and  since  the 
industrialization  of  Leipzig  Berlin  is  now  the 
centre  for  this  branch  of  composition.  Berlin 
criticisms  are  the  most  sought  and,  it  may  be 
added,  as  a  rule  the  most  severe.  So,  too, 
the  Philharmonic  Society  of  Berlin  is  the  focus 
for  orchestral  composers,  though  excellent 
orchestral  performances  are  given  frequently 
throughout  the  season  in  almost  all  German 
towns. 

German  teachers  and  German  schools  pro- 
duce probably  more  first-rate  singers  than 
those  of  any  other  country,  though  the  stamp 
of  success  is  usually  followed  by  the  engage- 
ment of  the  successful  singer  for  a  number 
of  years  by  one  of  the  wealthy  American 
organizations.  Probably  the  small  operas 
and  schools  of  the  old  provincial  capitals 
should  still  be  accounted  the  most  valuable 
educational  asset  ;  it  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  the  work  done,  for  instance,  at  the 
Grandducal  opera-house  at  Coburg.  Of  the 
50,000  professional  musicians  in  Germany 
only  2,500  are  employed,  according  to  R.  M. 
Berry,  in  state  and  municipal  orchestras, 
and  some  10,000  in  private  orchestras.  The 
earnings  of  all  are  usually  very  moderate, 
as  also  are  those  of  actors  and  actresses. 

The  complaint  not  infrequently  heard 
to-day  that  even  in  Germany  the  public 
taste  is  "  deserting  "  the  high  levels  of  musical 


248         GERMANY   OF  TO-DAY 

art,  and  seeking  recreation  in  performances 
of  a  lower  grade,  is  perhaps  due  to  the  same 
development  we  have  already  noted  in 
the  drama,  namely,  the  extension  of  the 
privilege  of  music  to  a  much  wider  class  of 
people,  and  simultaneously  the  demand  of 
this  wider  class  for  relaxation  rather  than 
education.  The  patronage  of  music  is  more 
widely  based,  and  therefore  its  appeal  must 
also  be  to  a  wider  range  of  requirements 
and  of  comprehension. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  in  the 
intellectual  domain  in  Germany,  as  elsewhere, 
/is  that  of  the  Press.  Here,  as  in  other 
/  matters,  the  existence  of  the  old  capitals  of 
the  independent  States  and  the  lack  of  any- 
thing resembling  the  concentration  upon  one 
capital  that  has  taken  place  in  England,  has 
hitherto  prevented  the  development  of  a 
metropolitan  press,  such  as  is  found  in  London. 
Cologne,  Frankfurt,  Munich,  and  Hamburg, 
to  mention  only  four  leading  instances, 
possess  national  newspapers  which  rank  more 
nearly  with  the  Times,  Telegraph,  Morning 
Post,  and  so  forth,  than  anything  that  can 
be  found  in  Berlin  itself.  On  the  other  hand, 
Berlin  possesses  the  three  most  enterprising 
and  most  widely  circulated  newspapers  of 
the  modern  type,  the  "  Lokal-Anzeiger," 
"  Berliner  Tageblatt,"  and  "  Morgenpost," 
whose  circulations  run  into  the  hundreds 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  249 

of  thousands,  but  whose  political  influence, 
it  is  thought,  is  not  in  reality  very  considerable. 
The  other  Berlin  papers  are  not,  as  a  rule, 
either  very  widely  circulated,  nor  are  they 
distinguished  by  any  considerable  enterprise. 
Many  of  them,  even  papers  constantly  quoted 
in  the  foreign  press,  are  really  no  more  than 
daily  printed  agency  reports  attached  to  one 
or  other  of  the  various  parties  and  factions 
represented  in  the  Reichstag. 

There  is  also  a  large  class  of  local  newspapers 
which  subsists  chiefly  owing  to  the  support 
of  the  local  authorities  of  the  permanent 
civil  service,  obtaining  official  advertisements 
in  return  for  scrupulous  adherence  to  the 
views  the  permanent  Government  desires 
to  inculcate.  It  is  clear  that  this  system 
deprives  these  papers  of  all  value  as  "  organs 
of  public  opinion,"  but  it  is  itself  only  a 
part  of  the  general  effort  to  force  ideas  upon, 
the  public  from  the  top  downwards  instead 
of  encouraging  their  development  from  the 
people  upwards.  We  have  already  seen  this 
process  at  work  in  connection  with  legislation, 
and  the  Government  does  its  best  to  maintain 
the  same  tendency  in  connection  with  the 
press. 

Hence,  too,  arises  the  confusing  and  fre- 
quently mischievous  system  of  the  "  semi- 
official press,"  that  is  papers  maintained 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  propagating  the 


250          GERMANY   OF    TO-DAY 

opinions  of  the  imperial  or  State-Governments, 
but  without  the  precise  official  character  of 
gazettes.  There  are  all  grades  of  this  semi- 
official character.  Some  papers,  such  as 
the  lately  instituted  Bavarian  Government 
paper,  are  frankly  official ;  others,  like 
the  North  German  Gazette,  have  an  official 
and  an  unofficial  part ;  others  again,  like  the 
Cologne  Gazette,  are  occasionally  "  inspired," 
but  in  such  a  way  that  the  inspiration  can  be 
denied  if  the  article  produces  an  undesired 
effect.  Even  the  Lokal-Anzeiger,  an  essen- 
tially sensational  newspaper,  is  understood 
to  be  used  not  infrequently  for  the  communica- 
tion of  semi-official  views.  It  is  significant, 
however,  that  the  papers  which  are  known 
thus  to  open  their  columns  to  inspiration, 
for  which  they  are  prepared,  if  need  be,  to 
accept  editorial  responsibility,  are  gradually 
losing  their  popularity,  and  thus  also  their 
value  to  the  officials  themselves.  Originally, 
no  doubt,  the  object  of  inspiration  was  to 
create  the  impression  that  the  views  thus 
"  formulated  "  were  actually  those  of  a  large 
section  of  the  public.  This  object  is  no  longer 
attained,  and  the  only  result  of  this  concealed 
inspiration  is  now  to  create  confusion  not 
as  to  what  is  the  real  sentiment  of  the  people, 
but  as  to  what  is  the  intention  or  opinion  of 
the  Government  itself. 

Despite    the    editorial    and    contributory 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  251 

energy  of  many  professors  and  men  of  admitted 
social  standing,  the  profession  of  journalism 
has  still  not  obtained  the  social  recognition 
which  its  importance  might  seem  to  justify. 
If  writers  in  the  daily  press  are  admitted 
to  court  and  to  court  functions,  they  obtain 
entrance  not  as  journalists  but  in  other 
capacities,  and  the  contemptuous  phrase, 
"  Hunger-candidates,"  once  applied  to  press- 
men, still  has  a  certain  currency,  even  though 
the  very  people  who  adopt  such  an  attitude 
are  themselves  forced  to  recognize  its  lack  of 
justification. 

The  German  press,  particularly  the  satiric 
press,  is  accused  commonly  of  excessive 
vulgarity  and  lack  of  refinement.  The  accu- 
sation is  undoubtedly  justified  to  a  great 
extent.  The  wittiest  of  all  German  satiric 
papers,  Simplicissimus,  is  at  times  so  vulgar 
that  it  certainly  would  not  be  tolerated 
by  British  readers.  It  is,  however,  frequently 
vulgar  or  immodest  out  of  a  curious  spirit 
of  reaction  against  the  mock-purism  of  certain 
kinds  of  officialdom.  The  gross  personal  tone 
which  sometimes  characterizes  the  German 
press  is  largely  a  result  of  Bismarckian 
influence,  and  of  the  theory  then  prevailing 
that  if  a  newspaper  were  encouraged  to  spit 
its  venom  at  persons  instead  of  condemning 
vicious  principles,  its  effect  was  lessened  and 
its  danger  to  the  institutions  criticized  reduced 


252         GERMANY   OF   TO-DAY 

to  a  minimum.  Hence  personalities  were 
rather  encouraged  than  the  reverse,  and  the 
resultant  tendency  has  not  disappeared. 

Neither  in  art  nor  in  architecture  can  it 
be  fairly  claimed  that  Germany  has  developed 
a  style  which  is  characteristic  of  her  rapid 
progress  in  other  directions.  The  secession- 
ists, revolting  against  the  narrow  formalism 
and  limitations  of  the  old  school,  have  them- 
selves split  into  opposing  groups  and  produced 
chaos  rather  than  the  promised  "  new  world." 
Although  there  are  famous  German  portrait- 
ists still,  and  a  number  of  famous  art  centres, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  trace  a  distinctive 
German  art. 

In  architecture  possibly  the  most  interesting 
development  is  the  application  of  a  kind  of 
Gothic  to  big  industrial  buildings.  In  general 
it  may  be  said  that  in  Germany  architects 
are  feeling  their  way  towards  a  style  of  building 
which  adapts  itself  to  the  prevalence  of  the  use 
of  iron  and  yet  avoids  insignificance.  Berlin 
has  several  great  stores  which  are  graceful 
and  distinctive,  without  being  overloaded 
with  meretricious  ornament,  as  are  too 
many  of  the  stucco  facades  of  the  blocks 
of  flats.  The  attempt  made  by  the  Emperor 
to  encourage  the  development  of  a  neo-classic 
architecture,  the  spirit  of  the  old  adapted 
to  the  requirements  of  the  new,  must  be 
confessed  a  failure,  for  the  statuary  produced 


INTELLECTUAL   LIFE  253 

under  his  encouragement  has  little  except 
enthusiasm  to  recommend  it,  and  Berlin  is 
full  of  productions  which  do  not  generally 
commend  themselves  to  critical  observers. 
The  conception  which  the  Emperor  formed, 
of  the  modern  duty  of  a  patron  of  art,  was 
indeed  high,  and  might  have  led  to  results 
more  enduring  and  more  satisfactory.  He 
epitomized  that  conception  himself  in  his 
speech  on  the  opening  of  the  Avenue  of 
Victory  in  the  Thiergarten,  that  avenue  which 
is  lined  with  a  series  of  more  or  less  faulty 
statues  portraying  the  Emperor's  ancestors. 
"  I  had  it  in  mind,"  he  said,  "  to  show  the 
world  if  I  could  that  the  most  favourable 
means  for  the  solution  of  an  artistic  purpose 
lies  not  in  the  summoning  of  commissions 
nor  in  the  establishment  of  all  kinds  of  prize- 
juries  and  competitions,  but  in  the  old  system 
of  the  classical  period  and  the  middle  ages, 
the  direct  relations  between  the  artist  and 
the  person  giving  the  commission."  With 
this  quotation,  which  shows  at  least  the 
intentions  of  the  Emperor  at  a  period  when 
German  art  was,  and  is,  shaking  off  its  old 
trammels  and  conventions,  and  has  not  yet 
formed  for  itself  the  new  restrictions  to  which 
all  characteristic  art  must  subscribe,  it  may 
be  well  to  close  this  brief  review. 

June,  1913. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   NOTE 

THE  literature  dealing  with  Germany  is  now  so  extensive 
that  it  is  possible  to  study  most  departments  of  German 
life  and  activity  at  home  and  abroad  in  excellent  English 
works.  For  the  same  reason,  however,  it  might  seem  an 
impertinence  to  make  any  selection,  since  the  works  not 
mentioned  may  be  of  equal  or  even  greater  special  value 
than  those  included.  The  following  recent  works  will, 
however,  be  found  useful : — 

HENRI  LICHTENBERGER. — Evolution  of  Modern  Germany 

(in  French  and  English). 

G.  H.  FERRIS. — Germany  and  the  German  Emperor, 
R.  M.  BERRY. — Germany  of  the  Germans. 
W.  H.  DAWSON. — Modern  Germany. 

A.  SIDGWICK  (MRS.). — Home  Life  in  Germany. 

The  following  special  works  may  also  be  recommended : 

B.  E.  HOWARD. — The  German  Empire.     (A  constitutional 

review  with  a  translation  of  the  text  of  the  Imperial 

Constitution.) 
E.  D.  HOWARD. — Cause  and  Extent  of  Industrial  Progress 

in  Germany. 
DR.  J.  RIESSER. — The  German  Great  Banks  (published 

by  the  Government  Printing   Office,   Washington, 

U.S.). 

DR.  J.  FROST. — Die  dzutsche  Landwirtschaft. 
DR.  ROBERT  BRUTSTHUBER. — Das  deutsche  Zeitungswesen. 
DR.  HANS  ROST. — Das  moderne  Wohnungsproblem. 
PAUL  GOLDMAN. — Vom  Rilckgang  der  deutechen  Buhnc, 
254 


INDEX 


AOEARIAKTSM,      183-8,       199- 

202,  205,  214 
Airships     and      Aeroplanes, 

83-5 
Alsace-Lorraine,     9,     20-21, 

88 

Army  Bill,  1913,  71,  83,  91 
Art  and  Architecture,  252-6 

Bavarian  privileges,  35,  71 
Bethmann     Hofiweg,     Herr 

von,  50 
Berlin  described,  100-123 

Cartels  and  Syndicates,  174-8 
Centre  Party,  The,  30-1 
Chemical   Industry,    168-170 
Colonists,  Germans  as,  97-8 

Education,  German  and  Eng- 
lish, compared,  136,  138- 
146,  148-9,  151 
Electrical  Trades,  172 
Empire,    Formation   of    the, 
17-19,  21 

Franchise :   Reichstag,    26-7, 
195 

States,  40-1,  44-5 

Prussian,  41-3 

Geographical  influences  and 
differences,  7-11 


Holy    Roman    Empire,   12, 

15 
Housing,  101,  116-128 

Income-tax,  Prussia,  90 
Insurance,  State,  93-6 
Iron  and  Steel  manufactures. 
170-1 

Jews,  Position  of,  74 
"Junkers,"    The,   7,    184-7, 
196,  213 

Legal  processes,  62-8 
Liberalism  (and  Radicalism), 

30-1 

Literature,  233-6 
Local  Government  in  Prussia, 

52-4,  107 

Matricular  Contributions,  87, 

91 

Military  Service,  71-7 
Music,  246-8 

Navy,  The,  49,  77-82 
North     German     Confedera- 
tion, 15-19 

Officials,  Status  of,  54-5,  209 


Police  System,  55-62 
Press,  The,  248-252 


253 


256 


INDEX 


Prices  and  Protection,   189- 
190,  203,  205 

Railways  and  Canals,  165-8, 

188 

Religious  life,  230-3  - 
Rural  exodus,  The,  108,  195 

Socialism,    30-1,    51,    162-3, 

178-9,  195 
Sport,  225-6 
Stein,  Baron  von,  52 

Textile  trades,  173-4 


Theatre,  The,  114,  237-246 
Thirty  Years'  War,  14 
Tirpitz,  Admiral  von,  79 
Trade  Unions,  179-182 

Village  life,  229 

"  War  Lord,"  The  Kaiser  as, 

36,  39,  69 

War  Treasure,  92-3 
Women,    Position    of,    148, 

216-222 

Zollverein,  The,  13 


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LITERATURE  AND  ART. 

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73.  EURIPIDES  AND  HIS  AGE.  By  Gilbert  Murray,  Regius  Pro- 
fessor of  Greek,  Oxford. 

101.  DANTE.  By  Jefferson  B.  Fletcher,  Columbia  University.  Aa 
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2.  SHAKESPEARE.  By  John  Masefield.  "One  of  the  very  few  in- 
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81.  CHAUCER  AND  HIS  TIMES.  By  Grace  E.  Hadow,  Lecturer  Lady 
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97.    MILTON.    By  John  Bailey. 

59.  DR.  JOHNSON  AND  HIS  CIRCLE.  By  John  Bailey.  Johnson's  life, 
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notable  vindication  of  the  "Genius  of  Boswell." 

83.  WILLIAM  MORRIS:  HIS  WORK  AND  INFLUENCE.  By  A. 
Glutton  Brock,  author  of  "Shelley:  The  Man  and  the  Poet." 
William  Morris  believed  that  the  artist  should  IOL  for  love  of  his 
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making  works  of  art  to  remaking  society. 

75.    SHELLEY,  GODWIN  AND  THEIR  CIRCLE.    By  H.  N.  BraiUford. 

The  influence  of  the  French  Revolution  on  England. 


70.     ANCIENT  ART  AND  RITUAL.     By  Jane  E.  Harrison,  LL.  D., 
D.   Litt.      "One   of   the    100  most   important   books   of    1913."- 
Nen>  York  Times  Review. 

45.  MEDIEVAL  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  By  W.  P.  Ker,  Professor 
of  English  Literature,  University  College,  London.  "One  of  the 
soundest  scholars.  His  style  is  effective,  simple,  yet  never  dry." — 
The  Athenaeum. 

87.  THE  RENAISSANCE.  By  Edith  Sichel,  author  of  "Catherine  de 
Medici,"  "Men  and  Women  of  the  French  Renaissance." 

89.     ELIZABETHAN    LITERATURE.     By   J.    M.    Robertson,   M.    P., 

author  of  "Montaigne  and  Shakespeare,"  "Modern  Humanists." 

27.  MODERN  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  By  G.  H.  Mair.  FromWyatt 
and  Surrey  to  Synge  and  Yeats.  "One  of  the  best  of  this  great 
series." — Chicago  Evening  Post. 

61.  THE  VICTORIAN  AGE  IN  LITERATURE.    By  G.  K.  Chesterton. 

40.  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE.  By  L.  P.  Smith.  A  concise  history 
of  its  origin  and  development. 

66.  WRITING  ENGLISH  PROSE.  By  William  T.  Brewster,  Professor 
of  English,  Columbia  University.  "Should  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  every  man  who  is  beginning  to  write  and  of  every  teacher  of 
English  that  has  brains  enough  to  understand  sense." — Neia  York 
Sun. 

58.  THE  NEWSPAPER.  By  G.  Binney  Dibble.  The  first  full  account 
from  the  inside  of  newspaper  organization  as  it  exists  to-day. 

48.     GREAT  WRITERS   OF  AMERICA.     By  W.  P.  Trent  and  John 

Erskine,    Columbia  University. 

93.  AN  OUTLINE  OF  RUSSIAN  LITERATURE.  By  Maurice  Baring, 
author  of  "The  Russian  People,"  etc.  Tolstoi,  Tourgenieff, 
Dostoieffsky,  Pushkin  (the  father  of  Russian  Literature),  Salty- 
kov (the  satirist,)  Lcskov,  and  many  other  authors. 

31.     LANDMARKS  IN  FRENCH  LITERATURE.     By  G.  L.  Strachey, 

Scholar  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  "It  is  difficult  to  imagine 
how  a  better  account  of  French  Literature  could  be  given  in  250 
pages." — London  Times. 

64.    THE  LITERATURE  OF  GERMANY.    By  J.  G.  Robertson. 

62.  PAINTERS  AND  PAINTING.    By  Sir  Frederick  Wedmore.     With 
.  16  half-tone  illustrations. 

38.  ARCHITECTURE.  By  Prof.  W.  R.  Lethaby.  An  introduction  to 
the  history  and  theory  of  the  art  of  building. 


NATURAL  SCIENCE. 
68.    DISEASE  AND  ITS  CAUSES.     By  W.  T.  Councilman,  M.  D., 

LL.  D.,  Professor  ef  Pathology,  Harvard  University. 

85.  SEX.  By  J.  Arthur  Thompson  and  Patrick  Gedcles,  joint  authors 
of  "The  Evolution  of  Sex." 

71.  PLANT  LIFE.  By  J.  B.  Farmer,  D.  Sc.,  F.  R.  S.,  Professor  of  Bot- 
any in  the  Imperial  College  of  Science,  London.  This  very  fully 
illustrated  volume  contains  an  account  of  the  salient  features  of 
plant  form  and  function. 

63.  THE  ORIGIN  AND  NATURE  OF  LIFE.  By  Benjamin  M.  Moore, 
Professor  of  Bio-Chemistry,  Liverpool. 

90.  CHEMISTRY.  By  Raphael  Meldola,  F.  R.  S.,  Professor  of  Chem- 
istry, Finsbury  Technical  College.  Presents  the  way  in  which 
the  science  has  developed  and  the  stage  it  has  reached. 

53.  ELECTRICITY.     By  Gisbert  Kapp,     Professor   of    Electrical    En- 
gineering, University  of  Birmingham. 

54.  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  EARTH.    By  J.  W.  Gregory,    Professor  of 
Geology,  Glasgow  University.     38  maps  and  figures.     Describes 
the  origin  of  the  earth,  the  formation  and  changes  of  its  surface 
and  structure,  its  geological  history,   the  first  appearance  of  life, 
and  its  influence  upon  the  globe. 

56.  MAN:  A  HISTORY  OF  THE  HUMAN  BODY.  By  A.  Keith,  M.  D., 
Hunterian  Professor,  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  London.  Shows 
how  the  human  body  developed. 

74.  NERVES.  By  David  Fraser  Harris,  M.  D.,  Professor  of  Physi- 
ology, Dalhousie  University,  Halifax.  Explains  in  non-technical 
language  the  place  and  powers  of  the  nervous  system. 

21.  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  SCIENCE.  By  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson, 
Science  Editor  of  the  Home  University  Library.  For  those  un- 
acquainted with  the  scientific  volumes  in  th«  series,  this  would 
prove  an  excellent  introduction. 

14.  EVOLUTION.  By  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thomson  and  Prof.  Patrick 
Geddes.  Explains  to  the  layman  what  the  title  means  to  the 
scientific  world. 

23.  ASTRONOMY.     By  A.  R.  Hinks,    Chief   Assistant    at   the   Cam- 
bridge Observatory.     "Decidedly   original   in  substance,   and   the 
most  readable  and  informative  little  book  on  modern   astronomy 
we  have  seen  for  a  long  time." — Nature. 

24.  PSYCHICAL  RESEARCH.    By  Prof.  W.  F.  Barrett,  formerly   Pres- 
ident of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 

9.  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  PLANTS.  By  Dr.  D.  H.  Scott,  President 
of.  the  Linnean  Society  of  London.  The  story  of  the  develop- 
ment of  flowering  plants,  from  the  earliest  zoological  times,  un- 
locked from  technical  language. 


43.  MATTER  AND  ENERGY.  By  F.  Soddy,  Lecturer  in  Physical 
Chemistry  and  Radioactivity,  University  of  Glasgow.  "Brilliant. 
Can  hardly  be  surpassed.  Sure  to  attract  attention." — New 
YOT\  Sun. 

41.  PSYCHOLOGY,  THE  STUDY  OF  BEHAVIOUR.    By  William  Mc- 
Dougall,  of   Oxford.      A    well    digested    summary    of    the    essen- 
tials of  the  science  put  in  excellent   literary  form  by   a   leading 
authority. 

42.  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  PHYSIOLOGY.    By  Prof.  J.  G.  McKendrick. 
A  compact  statement  by  the  Emeritus  Professor  at  Glasgow,  for 
uninstructed  readers. 

37.  ANTHROPOLOGY.  By  R.  R.  Marett,  Reader  in  Social  An- 
thropology, Oxford.  Seeks  to  plot  out  and  sum  up  the  general 
series  of  changes,  bodily  and  mental,  undergone  by  man  in  the 
course  of  history.  "Excellent.  So  enthusiastic,  so  clear  and  witty, 
and  so  well  adapted  to  the  general  reader." — American  Library 
Association  Booklist. 

17.  CRIME  AND  INSANITY.  By  Dr.  C.  Mercier,  author  of  "Test 
Book  of  Insanity,"  etc. 

12.     THE  ANIMAL  WORLD.    By  Prof.  F.  W.  Gamble. 

15.     INTRODUCTION   TO   MATHEMATICS.     By   A.   N.   Whitebe.d, 

author  of  "Universal  Algebra." 

PHILOSOPHY  AND  RELIGION. 


69.  A  HISTORY  OF  FREEDOM  OF  THOUGHT.  By  John  B.  Bury, 
M.  A.,  LL.  D.,  Regius  Professor  of  Modern  History  in  Cam- 
bridge University.  Summarizes  the  history  of  the  long  struggle 
between  authority  and  reason  and  of  the  emergence  of  the  prin- 
ciple that  coercion  of  opinion  is  a  mistake. 

96.  A  HISTORY  OF  PHILOSOPHY.  By  Clement  C.  J.  Webb, 
Oxford. 

35.     THE    PROBLEMS    OF    PHILOSOPHY.      By    Bertram!    Russell, 

Lecturer  and  Late  Fellow,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

60.  COMPARATIVE  RELIGION.  By  Prof.  J.  Estlin  Carpenter. 
"One  of  the  few  authorities  on  this  subject  compares  all  the  re- 
ligions to  see  what  they  have  to  offer  on  the  great  themes  of  re- 
ligion."— Christian  Wor\  and  Evangelist. 

44.  BUDDHISM.  By  Mrs.  Rhys  Davids,  Lecturer  on  Indian  Philoso- 
phy, Manchester. 

46.     ENGLISH  SECTS:  A  HISTORY  OF  NONCONFORMITY.  By  W.  B. 

Selbie,      Principal    of   Manrhpuler   Cr>llr?i«.  Oxford. 


55.  MISSIONS:  THEIR  RISE  AND  DEVELOPMENT.  By  Mrs.  Man- 
dell  Creighton,  author  of  "History  of  England."  The  author 
seeks  to  prove  that  missions  have  done  more  to  civilize  the  world 
than  any  other  human  agency. 

52.  ETHICS.  By  G.  E.  Moore,  Lecturer  in  Moral  Science,  Cam- 
bridge. Discusses  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  and  the  why» 
and  wherefores. 

65.     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.    By  George  F. 

Moore,  Professor  of  the  History  of  Religion,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. "A  popular  work  of  the  highest  order.  Will  be  profit- 
able to  anybpdy  who  cares  enough  about  Bible  study  to  read  a 
serious  book  on  the  subject." — American  Journal  of  Theology. 

88.  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT  BETWEEN  OLD  AND  NEW  TESTA- 
MENTS.  By  R.  H.  Charles,  Canon  of  Westminster.  Shows  how 
religious  and  ethical  thought  between  180  B.  C.  and  100  A.  D. 
grew  naturally  into  that  of  the  New  Testament. 

50.    THE  MAKING  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT.    By  B.  W.  Bacon, 

Professor  of  New  Testament  Criticism,  Yale.  An  authoritative 
summary  of  the  results  of  modern  critical  research  with  regard  to 
the  origins  of  the  New  Testament, 

SOCIAL  SCIENCE. 

91.  THE  NEGRO.  By  Wo  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  author  of  "Souls  of 
Black  Folks,"  etc.  A  history  of  the  black  man  in  Africa, 
America  or  wherever  else  his  presence  has  been  or  is  important. 

77.  CO-PARTNERSHIP  AND  PROFIT  SHARING.  By  Aneurin  Wil- 
liams,  Chairman,  Executive  Committee,  International  Co-opera- 
tive Alliance,  etc.  Explains  the  various  types  of  co-partnership 
or  profit-sharing,  or  both,  and  gives  details  of  the  arrangement! 
now  in  force  in  many  of  the  great  industries. 

w  POLITICAL  THOUGHT:  THE  UTILITARIANS.  FROM  BENT- 
HAM  TO  J.  S.  MILL.  By  William  L.  P.  Davidson. 

98.  POLITICAL  THOUGHT:  FROM  HERBERT  SPENCER  TO  THE 
PRESENT  DAYc  By  Ernest  Barker,  M.  A. 

79.     UNEMPLOYMENT.    By  A.  C.  Pigou,  M.  A.,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  at  Cambridge.     The  meaning,  measurement,  distribution, 
and  effects  of  unemployment,  its  relation  to  wages,  trade  fluctu* 
»ions.  and  disputes,  and  «<-ime  proposals  of  remedy  nr  rfVtf.f. 


80.  COMMON-SENSE  IN  LAW.  By  Prof.  Paul  Vinogradoff.  D.  C.  L. 
LL.  D.  Social  and  Legal  Rules — Legal  Rights  and  Duties — 
Facts  and  Acts  in  Law — Legislation — Custom — Judicial  Prece- 
dents— Equity — The  Law  of  Nature. 

49.    ELEMENTS   OF    POLITICAL   ECONOMY.     By   S.   J.    Chapman, 

Professor  of  Political  Economy  and  Dean  of  Faculty  of  Com- 
merce and  Administration,  University  of  Manchester. 

II.  THE  SCIENCE  OF  WEALTH.  By  J.  A.  Hobson, author  of  "Prob- 
lems  of  Poverty."  A  study  of  the  structure  and  working  of  the 
modern  business  world. 

1.    PARLIAMENT.     ITS  HISTORY,  CONSTITUTION,  AND  PRAC- 
TICE.    By  Sir  Courtenay  P.  Ilbert,   Clerk  of  the  House  of  Com- 


16.  LIBERALISM.  By  Prof.  L.  T.  Hobhouse,  author  of  "Democracy 
and  Reaction."  A  masterly  philosophical  and  historical  review  of 
the  subject. 

5.  THE  STOCK  EXCHANGE.    By  F.  W.  Hint,  Editor  of  the  London 
Economist.     Reveals  to  the  non-financial   mind   the  facts  about 
investment,  speculation,  and  the  other  terms  which  the  title  sug- 
gests. 

10.  THE  SOCIALIST  MOVEMENT.  By  J.  Ramsay  Macdonald, 
Chairman  of  tlie  British  Labor  Party. 

28.     THE    EVOLUTION    OF    INDUSTRY.      By    D.    H.    MacGregor, 

Professor  of  Political  Economy,  University  of  Leeds.  An  out- 
line of  the  recent  changes  that  have  given  us  the  present  conditions 
of  the  working  classes  and  the  principles  involved. 

?9.  ELEMENTS  OF  ENGLISH  LAW.  By  W.  M.  Geldart,  Vinerian 
Professor  of  English  Law,  Oxford.  A  simple  statement  of  the 
basic  principles  of  the  English  legal  system  on  which  that  of  the 
United  States  is  based. 

J2.  THE  SCHOOL:  AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  EDU- 
CATION. By  J.  J.  Findlay,  Professor  of  Education,  Manches- 
ter. Presents  the  history,  the  psychological  basis,  and  the  theory 
of  the  school  with  a  rare  power  of  summary  and  suggestion. 

6.  IRISH  NATIONALITY.    By  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green.  A  brilliant  account 
of  the  genius  and  mission  of  the   Irish  people.     "An  entrancing 
work,  and  I  would  advise  every  one  with  a  drop  of  Irish  blood 
in  his  veins  or  a  vein  of  Irish  sympathy  in  his  heart  to  read  it."— • 

/Wn>    Ynrlf   T'tmp*'   Rf\>tfn> 


GENERAL  HISTORY  AND  GEOGRAPHY. 

102.  SERBIA.     By  L.   F.  Waring,   with  preface  by  J.  M.  Jovanovitch, 

Serbian  Minister  to  Great  Britain.  The  main  outlines  of  Serbian 
history,  with  special  emphasis  on  the  immediate  causes  of  the  war, 
and  the  questions  which  will  be  of  greatest  importance  in  the  after- 
the-war  settlement. 

33.  THE  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.    By  A.  F.  Pollard,     Professor  of 
English  History,  University  of  London. 

95.  BELGIUM.  By  R.  C.  K.  Ensor,  Sometime  Scholar  of  Balliol 
College.  The  geographical,  linguistic,  historical,  artistic  and  lit- 
erary associations. 

99.  POLAND.  By  W.  Alison  Phillips,  University  of  Dublin.  The 
history  of  Poland  with  special  emphasis  upon  the  Polish  question 
of  the  present  day. 

34.  CANADA.    By  A.  G.  Bradley. 

72.     GERMANY  OF  TO-DAY.    By  Charles  Tower. 

78.  LATIN  AMERICA.  By  William  R.  Shepherd,  Professor  of  His- 
tory, Columbia.  With  maps.  The  historical,  artistic,  and  com- 
mercial development  of  the  Central  South  American  republics. 

18.  THE    OPENING-UP    OF    AFRICA.      By    Sir    H.    H.    Johnston. 

19.  THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA.    By  H.  A.  Giles,   Professor  of 
Chinese,  Cambridge. 

36.  PEOPLES  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA.  By  Sir  T.  W.  Holderness. 
"The  best  small  treatise  dealing  with  the  range  of  subjects  fairly 
indicated  by  the  tille." — The  Dial. 

26.     THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY.    By  J.  L.  Myers,    Professor  of  Ancient 

History,  Oxford. 
92.     THE  ANCIENT  EAST.     By  D.   G.  Hogarth,  M.  A.,  F.  B.  A., 

F.  S.  A.  Connects  with  Prof.  Myers's  "Dawn  of  History"  (No. 
26)  at  about  1000  B.  C.  and  reviews  the  history  of  Assyria, 
Babylon,  Cilicia,  Persia  and  Macedon. 

30.     ROME.    By  W.  Warde  Fowler,    author  of  "Social  Life  at  Rome," 

etc. 

13.     MEDIEVAL  EUROPE.    By  H.  W.  C.  Davis,    Fellow  at  Balliol  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  author  of  "Charlemagne,"  etc. 
3.    THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.    By  Hillaire  Belloc. 

57.  NAPOLEON.  By  H.  A.  L.  Fisher,  Vice-Chancellor  of  Sheffield 
University.  Author  of  "The  Republican  Tradition  in  Europe." 

20.  HISTORY   OF    OUR   TIME    (1885-1911).     By   C.    P.    GoocL 
22.    THE  PAPACY  AND  MODERN  TIMES.     By  Rev.  William  Barry, 

D.  D.,  author  of  "The  Papal  Monarchy,"  etc.  The  story  of  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  Temporal  Power. 


4.     A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE.     By  G.  H.  Ferris, 

author  of  "Russia  in  Revolution,"  etc. 
94      THE  NAVY  AND  SEA  POWER.     By  David  Hannay,    author   of 

"Short  History  of  the  Royal  Navy,"  etc.     A  brief  history  of  the 

navies,  sea  power,  and  ship  growth  of  all  nations,  including  the 

rise    and    decline    of    America    on    the    sea,    and    explaining    the 

present  British  supremacy  thereon. 
«.     POLAR  EXPLORATION..    By  Dr.  W.  S.  Bruce,      Leader    of    the 

"Scotia"  expedition.     Emphasizes  the  results  of  the  expeditions. 
SI.     MASTER  MARINERS.     By  John  R.  Spears,  author  of  "The  His- 

tory  of  Our  Navy,"  etc.     A  history  of  sea  craft  adventure  from 

th«  earliest  times. 

«6.    EXPLORATION  OF  THE  ALPS.    By  Arnold  Lunn,  M.  A. 
7.     MODERN  GEOGRAPHY.    By  Dr.  Marion  Newbigin.    Shows  the  re- 

lation  of   physical    features  to   livinj*   things   and   to  some  of   the 

chief  institutions  of  civilization. 
76.    THE  OCEAN.     A  GENERAL  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  SCIENCE  OF 

THE  SEA.    By  Sir  John  Murray,  K.  C.  B.,    Naturalist  H.  M,  S. 

"Challenger,"    1872-1876,   joint  author  of  "The  Depths  of  the 

Ocean,"  etc. 

64.  THE  GROWTH  OF  EUROPE.  By  Granville  Cole,  Professor  of 
Geology,  Royal  College  of  Science,  Ireland.  A  study  of  the 
geology  and  physical  geography  in  connection  with  the  political 
geography.  , 

AMERICAN  HISTORY. 

47.     THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD  (1607-1766).    By  Charles  McLean  AD- 

drews,     Professor  of  American  History,  Yale. 

82.  THE  WARS  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA  (1763-1815). 
By  Theodore  C.  Smith,  Professor  of  American  History,  Wil- 
liams College.  A  history  of  the  period,  with  especial  emphasis 
on  The  Revolution  and  The  War  of  1812. 

67.  FROM  JEFFERSON  TO  LINCOLN  (1815-1860).  By  William 
MacDonald,  Professor  of  History,  Brown  University.  The 
author  makes  the  history  of  this  period  circulate  about  constitu- 
tional ideas  and  slavery  sentiment. 

25.  THE  CIVIL  WAR  (1854-1865.)  By  Frederic  L  Paxson, 
Professor  of  American  History,  University  of  Wisconsin. 

39.  RECONSTRUCTION  AND  UNION  (1865-1912).  By  Paul  Leland 
Ha  worth.  A  History  of  the  United  States  in  our  own  times. 

OTHER  VOLUMES  IN  PREPARATION 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

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